Anna Nusslock speaks to supporters on the steps of the Humboldt County Courthouse on Friday | Photos: Andrew Goff

As we write, dozens of people are crammed into a Humboldt County courtroom for the latest hearing in the State of California’s case against Providence St. Joseph Hospital, which alleges the hospital refused to provide emergency abortion care. The Outpost will have a report on those proceedings later today. (UPDATE: As promised: Our report from the courtroom.)

In advance of the hearing, around a hundred reproductive healthcare supporters gathered in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse. The main feature of the rally was a fiery speech by Anna Nusslock, the patient who, in February 2024, says she arrived at St. Joseph Hospital bleeding heavily after her water prematurely broke during the 15th week of her pregnancy with twins. 

The following is the entirety of her comments on the courthouse steps Friday morning. (Full video farther down): 

Today, the state is taking steps to protect us and to hold Providence Hospital accountable. Providence must follow the law and provide emergency care for people without discrimination. Providence Hospital’s disgusting disregard for emergency services laws has gone on long enough. 

Last year, when I lost my daughters and I told the entire world about what Providence did to me, I was terrified. I was terrified that I was going to be ostracized in my community. I was terrified that the other doctors were going to hate me for drawing so much attention to the embarrassing state of health care in our county.

But as you see, that didn’t happen. 

Do you know what people said? They said, thank you for sharing your story. And then they started sharing their stories too. 

In our news, I read stories of profound sorrow and heartbreak, and those stories confirmed to me what I suspected from the start, that what happened to me has happened to far too many other women, just here in our small community, there are a lot of small towns like ours with a lot of hospitals like Providence. How many people have suffered from these religious hospital policies? Too many. 

A provider at Providence came forward and shared his story of fighting these horrible policies from within. They want to be able to save their patients’ lives. They want to be able to meet the standard of care without fear of losing their livelihoods. These situations are breaking their hearts, and they’re driving away other good doctors who want to provide care for us but can’t work under these conditions. 

Our community is beautiful because it is remote, and yes, there are challenges to accept with living so far up north. But no, I do not accept Providence taking advantage of our isolation by stripping us to our right to the health care that we need.

Hospitals should not get to decide whether or not to try and save our lives, especially if we don’t have a choice in what hospital we can go to. 

We all deserve health care, and abortion is health care. No religious hospital policy should have sent me away bleeding with a bucket when I needed help. When I lost my daughters, I didn’t deserve to almost lose my life because Providence Hospital refused to let my doctors treat me. 

Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for standing up for moms in our community. Thank you for sharing your stories together, we are strong and together, we are loud and we can change the world together. 

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More photos from Friday’s event:

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UPDATE, 3:44 p.m.: Providence St. Joseph sends the following statement:

Serving the residents of Humboldt County is a privilege we don’t take for granted. That’s why we are deeply committed to providing high-quality, compassionate care, just as we have been for more than 100 years.

We strongly disagree with the California Attorney General’s allegations against St. Joseph Hospital Eureka. We are deeply committed to delivering care in accordance with federal and state law, as well as our mission as a faith-based organization. This includes providing life-saving medical interventions that may result in fetal death.

As a Catholic health care organization, we are transparent that we do not perform elective abortions. However, in emergencies, our care teams provide medically necessary interventions to protect pregnant patients who are miscarrying or facing serious life-threatening conditions.

This is consistent with the California Emergency Services Law and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. It is also consistent with the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives, which include discussion of the importance of the physician-patient relationship as well as the circumstances in which certain medical procedures that could result in fetal death may be allowed in a Catholic hospital.

As part of this commitment, we recently enhanced our training, education and escalation protocols to further ensure the best possible care.

We take our responsibility as a vital safety net incredibly seriously and are committed to continuing to meet the needs of our community, just as the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange did when they established health care in the region more than a century ago.

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