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This week, the California attorney general announced a lawsuit again St. Joseph Hospital’s parent company for denying emergency abortion care to a Eureka woman, Dr. Anna Nusslock.

I live in Ferndale. I don’t know Dr. Nusslock, but I’m so sorry for what she’s gone through. Her story opened my eyes to how my own St. Joe’s story could have turned out differently.

The author and her daughter. Photo: Submitted.

I received miscarriage treatment there in April because a very wanted pregnancy ended on its own at seven weeks and had not passed out of my body by 11 weeks.

Let’s imagine my body’s process had gone just a bit differently. Let’s say the fetus wasn’t going to survive but hadn’t died yet. Let’s say I was bleeding, as happened repeatedly in my last pregnancy with my daughter, who’s now two. 

According to this lawsuit, the hospital policy might have dictated that I try to get myself to San Francisco, perhaps by paying out of pocket for a medical flight (if not too foggy), and risking death on the journey. Or I might have received a bucket and some rags and been told to get myself to Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata.

None of us — urban, rural, rich, middle-class, poor — deserve this indignity. Dr. Nusslock’s story shows that we - women and our loved ones - are not safe, even in a blue state. Stories like hers are being reported all across the U.S. since the fall of Roe v Wade under Donald Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court.

This is why I believe we have to fight as hard as possible for better policies before and after the election — so that this doesn’t become our kids’ future. It doesn’t have to be this way. (If you’re not sure where to start, check out votesaveamerica.com.)

The doctors and nurses who cared for me at St. Joe’s were compassionate and skilled. The hospital policy, as alleged in the lawsuit, is wrong. All across the U.S., policymakers who want to control women’s bodies this way are growing more emboldened by the Republican party (which, by the way, also wants to replace Affordable Care Act’s protections with unspecified “concepts of a plan”).

Please share these stories with anyone, in any state, who needs convincing about the stakes of this election. I know so many of you have your own stories too.

I see Trump/Vance signs at houses in Humboldt County and I wonder, would those people really accept me bleeding out and leaving my daughter motherless? Is that what “pro-life” means to you? What are we even doing here?

I’m not very comfortable sharing my story. I’d rather not have to. I’ve just started my own company and I’m risking loss of potential business.

But I’m angry and baffled. And the stakes are too high.

Thank you, Dr. Nusslock and Attorney General Rob Bonta, for courageously trying to right this wrong at St. Joseph’s.

If you’d like to connect with others in our community who care about these issues (including the closure of Mad River’s labor & delivery unit) — to learn from each other and work to create a safer and more just Humboldt County — please go to this link, where a mutual aid organizing process is underway.