Eureka hospital agrees to provide emergency abortions following lawsuit by state

"While Providence St. Joseph should have been complying with state law up to now, thereby avoiding the harm and trauma to Californians they caused, I am pleased that the hospital has agreed to fully comply with the law going forward, ensuring access to life-saving health services including emergency abortion care," Bonta said in a statement Tuesday. "At the California Department of Justice, we believe that abortion care is healthcare."

"Providence St. Joseph Hospital entered an agreement Monday to comply with the California Emergency Services Law - which requires all hospitals to provide abortions if the failure to do so would place the patient's health in serious jeopardy, seriously impair the patient's bodily functions or result in serious dysfunction of any organ."

The lawsuit alleges that, in February, Providence St. Joseph Hospital denied a patient emergency care when her water prematurely broke while she was 15 weeks pregnant with twins. It allegedly placed her life at risk by telling her to drive to Mad River Community Hospital, a smaller critical access hospital 12 miles away, armed with a bucket and towels, while she was hemorrhaging.

Mad River Community Hospital is scheduled to close its birth center at the end of the month, leaving Providence St. Joseph Hospital as the only labor and delivery unit in Humboldt County.

Read at Los Angeles Times