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- Mylissa Farmer was refused an emergency abortion by two hospitals.
- US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said those two hospitals violated the law.
- Hospital managers feared the abortion would put them in legal jeopardy.
Two hospitals in the US Midwest violated federal law by denying an emergency abortion to a woman who had gone into premature labour and putting her life in danger, government officials said on Monday.
Hospital managers feared the termination would put them in legal jeopardy, underscoring the confusion sparked by the patchwork of state restrictions enacted since the Supreme Court overturned federal protections for abortion access last June.
"Fortunately, this patient survived. But she never should have gone through the terrifying ordeal she experienced in the first place," Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement announcing an investigation into the hospitals.
"We want her, and every patient out there like her, to know that we will do everything we can to protect their lives and health, and to investigate and enforce the law to the fullest extent of our legal authority, in accordance with orders from the courts."
Mylissa Farmer, of Joplin, Missouri, was refused the abortion by her hometown hospital and another 240km away in Kansas City, after her water broke when she was 17 weeks pregnant in August.
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Doctors had established that her pregnancy was no longer viable and that she was at risk of a life-threatening infection but determined that, since the foetus had a heartbeat, they could not perform an abortion.
The National Women's Law Centre complained to the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of HHS that can investigate hospitals benefiting from government health insurance programmes.
The legal advocacy group said in a blog post on Monday:
"Filled with grief and fear for her life, she was forced to drive for hours, across three states, before she finally received treatment three days later in Illinois.
"By the time she received the care she needed, she was in labour, in severe pain, likely suffering an infection, and feeling defeated, hopeless, and humiliated."
Abortions are banned in Missouri, but there are exceptions for cases where the mother is at risk.
While Kansas City is also in Missouri, the hospital itself is in a suburb over the state border in Kansas, where abortion is legal until the 22nd week of pregnancy.
Becerra said he had written to hospitals across the country on Monday reminding them of their "professional and legal duty" to offer abortions in medical emergencies, regardless of state law, under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labour Act (EMTALA).
That measure requires "that health care professionals offer treatment, including abortion care, that the provider reasonably determines is necessary to stabilise the patient's emergency medical condition", he wrote.
