Texas’ restrictive and unclear abortion regulations, they claimed, caused one family’s “nightmare” by preventing them from receiving medical assistance during a miscarriage.
Ryan Hamilton, who resides in Texas, went viral on X this week after revealing the terrible experience his wife, Jess, had when she discovered she had suffered an “incomplete miscarriage” with their second child.
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The couple went to at least three different doctors at two hospitals in Texas in an attempt to get medical help for Jess, who was suffering from terrible aches and bleeding caused by the miscarriage, he wrote.
In the article, he wrote that multiple doctors refused to give Jess medicine, refused to perform a dilation and curettage operation, and appeared to take her medical issue lightly, leaving her to linger in an emergency department for hours before sending her home.
“A new doctor was on call. He was an old man. You could hear him in the hallway saying, ‘I’m not giving her a pill so she can go home and have an abortion!’ We were completely aware that our baby’s heartbeat had stopped. Then he entered the room and said, and I quote, “Considering the current stance,” I’m not going to prescribe you this medication. Then just send us on our way,” the devastated father wrote.
Mr. Hamilton said he later discovered his wife “unconscious” on their bathroom floor, having lost blood and bodily fluids over the course of several days.
“Now, not only do we have to live with the loss of our baby, we have to live with the nightmare of what we just experienced because of political and religious beliefs,” Mr. Hamilton said in his piece.
He continued, “My wife’s health should have come first.”
Abortion is prohibited in Texas if a fetal heartbeat is found, unless a “reasonable medical judgment” determines that the pregnant person is at a higher risk of dying or having a key bodily function impaired. However, the statute doesn’t define “reasonable medical judgment” or “major bodily function.”
Additionally, anyone who conducts an abortion without completing those conditions may face criminal prosecution and the loss of their medical license.
Mr. Hamilton stated that the third time he and Jess visited a hospital, he believed the staff’s main concern was “worried about the legalities involved.”
He described how they admitted his wife, asked questions, performed a scan to ensure the fetus was still inside with no heartbeat, and then left for hours, “only to return and ask the same questions over and over.”
Despite Jess’ illness and two failed attempts to treat the miscarriage with medication, the doctors were unable to decide in good faith whether she was suitable for a dilation and curettage treatment.
Texas and other states with severe anti-abortion legislation that does not shield medical providers from criminal charges have reported stories similar to Ryan and Jess’s.
A severe medical condition faced Kate Cox, a Texas woman who has used her experience to campaign for clearer and less restrictive abortion regulations, when she learned her unborn child would most likely not survive the pregnancy or birth.
Ms. Cox was unable to obtain an abortion owing to Texas’ laws. She is one of several individuals suing the state for using broad language in the legislation to deny them medically necessary abortions, causing them harm.
Ms. Cox was also one of many who testified before the Texas Medical Board this week about the law’s implications, as the board seeks to clarify some of the ambiguous language.
