St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. | File photo.

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PREVIOUSLY:

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In response to a state lawsuit accusing St. Joseph Hospital of refusing to provide emergency abortion care, Providence Northern California is denying the allegations while promising to follow state law as the case proceeds.

Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office had filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to require St. Joseph Hospital to comply with California’s Emergency Services Law (ESL) with regard to pregnant patients experiencing medical emergencies. Today was the deadline for Providence to file its response. 

A stipulated agreement and proposed order, received today by Humboldt County Superior Court, says both parties in this lawsuit seek to ensure “that pregnant patients receive adequate treatment for emergency medical conditions, based on the professional judgment of the treating physician.”

Furthermore, it says the two sides have “initiated discussions regarding a settlement of the case,” though Bonta’s office isn’t waiving any of its allegations and Providence isn’t admitting any liability at this stage.

The document, linked below, must be signed by a judge to take effect. 

The state’s complaint, filed on Sept. 30, alleges that Providence violated California’s Emergency Services Law, the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the Unfair Competition Law. In one specific case, it accuses St. Joseph Hospital of denying emergency abortion care to Dr. Anna Nusslock, a Eureka chiropractor who was just 15 weeks pregnant with twins when she arrived to the hospital bleeding heavily and in severe pain.

“Despite the immediate threat to her life and health, and despite the fact her pregnancy was no longer viable, Providence refused to treat her,” Bonta’s office said in a press release. Care providers instead sent Nusslock up to Mad River Community Hospital. “On the way out the door, Providence handed Nusslock a bucket and towels ‘in case something happens in the car,’” the suit alleges.

The labor and delivery unit of Mad River Community Hospital is scheduled to permanently close on Thursday, leaving St. Joseph Hospital as the only labor and delivery unit in Humboldt County.

In the stipulated agreement, St. Joseph Hospital agrees, among other things, to:

Continue to allow its physicians to terminate a patient’s pregnancy … whenever the treating physician(s) determine in their professional judgment that failing to immediately terminate the pregnancy would reasonably be expected to
  1. Place the patient’s health in serious jeopardy;
  2. Result in serious impairment to the patient’s bodily functions; or 
  3. Result in serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part of the patient.

The hospital also agrees to provide a written notice of the order to all medical staff and every physician with privileges there within seven days of its issuance. Once the order is signed, the court will have authority to enforce it.

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DOCUMENT: Stipulated Agreement and Proposed Order