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Update: NWLC Sues University of Kansas Health System Over Denial of Emergency Abortion Care
On July 30, 2024, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), alongside Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, and Dugan Schlozman LLC, filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Kansas Health System and the University of Kansas Hospital Authority on behalf of Mylissa Farmer. The lawsuit claims the University of Kansas Health System, which is governed by the Hospital Authority, violated a federal law that requires emergency rooms to provide treatment necessary to stabilize patients with an emergency medical condition. The lawsuit also alleges the hospital violated Kansas nondiscrimination law when they turned her away because of her pregnancy-related condition.
On October 9th, 2024, Ms. Farmer filed a brief in opposition to defendant’s motion to dismiss as well as a brief in opposition to defendant’s motion to stay discovery.
For more information, see our press release here.
Update: CMS Issues Notices of Deficiency Against Hospitals That Denied Farmer Care
On April 10, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) issued notices of deficiency against Freeman Hospital West in Joplin, Missouri, and the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas, for failing to provide emergency abortion care to Ms. Farmer after preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), an emergency pregnancy complication, at almost 18 weeks of pregnancy on August 2-4, 2022, in violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). CMS’s notices of deficiency are critical enforcement actions in a time when there is no longer a national constitutional right to abortion. Ms. Farmer hopes that “no one else will ever face unnecessary delays and increased risks of complications or death in emergency care during a time of already unimaginable loss.”
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On August 2–4, 2022, Mylissa Farmer, a Missouri resident, was denied emergency abortion care by multiple hospitals in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois after her water broke at almost 18 weeks of pregnancy. Doctors at two of the multiple hospitals concluded that Ms. Farmer’s pregnancy was no longer viable and that she was at risk of a serious infection, hemorrhaging, or death. Nonetheless, the legal departments at these two hospitals overrode their doctors’ medical judgment and denied the emergency abortion care she needed, while another two hospitals discouraged Ms. Farmer from seeking emergency care at their facilities altogether.
On November 8, 2022, NWLC filed a complaint with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on behalf of Ms. Farmer pursuant to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (“EMTALA”), a federal law that ensures patients receive the emergency medical care they need. We asserted that the two hospitals that overrode their medical providers’ judgment violated EMTALA, which requires hospitals to provide emergency care irrespective of state law, including emergency abortion care that a state might deem to be illegal.
On January 29, 2023, NWLC filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights on behalf of Ms. Farmer, explaining that all four hospitals discriminated against her on the basis of sex in violation of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the first federal law to broadly prohibit sex discrimination in health care, by denying her the care necessary to preserve her life and health. NWLC has also filed sex discrimination charges with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights and the Kansas Human Rights Commission.
Our Filings:
Farmer v. UKHS Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Stay Discovery
Farmer v. UKHS Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss
Farmer v. University of Kansas Health System Complaint
Missouri Commission on Human Rights Complaint Against Freeman Hospital West
Kansas Human Rights Commission Complaint Against Kansas University Medical Center
Kansas Human Rights Commission Complaint Against Labette Health
Decisions:
Freeman Hospital West CMS Notice
University of Kansas Health System CMS Notice
Secretary Becerra Letter to Hospital and Provider Associations