Victims of Belief-based Denial
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Harmonie (Oct 2025) – Illinois
Woman denied emergency care for ectopic pregnancy “Honestly, it is so scary to be a woman in 2025 in America. Your religious beliefs should never come before my life or giving me life saving treatment. That’s just crazy to me. I can’t believe that this specialist try to convince me that it was a state […]
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Rachel Harrison (2025) – California
In September 2025, Rachel Harrison and her partner sued Dignity Health, a Catholic-affiliated hospital network, because she was denied emergency abortion care on two separate occasions. During the second episode, she developed a life-threatening blood infection. Her first pregnancy loss occured at 17 weeks in September 2024. She felt a gush of fluid and rushed […]
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31 women (anonymous) – USA
Women’s health and lives are frequently put at risk in American Catholic hospitals, but only a few cases are publicized. We count at least 80 so far – 31 mostly anonymous cases are included here, with the rest described individually by name on the main “Victims of Belief-based Care Denial” page. One case in California […]
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Anna Nusslock (2024) – California
In February 2024, Anna Nusslock was 15 weeks pregnant when her water broke. When she went to her local hospital in Eureka California, she learned that the twins she and her husband had so desperately wanted were not viable. Further, her own health was in danger, and she needed an emergency abortion to prevent hemorrhaging […]
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Mirela (2022) – Croatia
Four hospitals deny a woman a legal abortion because of serious fetal anomalies, forcing her to go to Slovenia. At a regular gynecological check-up in April, it was found that Mirela Čavajda’s fetus had a malignant brain tumor. She waited nine days to get the medical report confirming that the child, if born, would have […]
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Agnieszka T (2022) † Poland
Pregnant woman miscarrying twins dies of (likely) sepsis because doctors waited for fetuses to die. Agnieszka, a mother of three, was pregnant with twins during her first trimester when she was admitted to the Blessed Virgin Mary Hospital in Częstochowa on December 21, 2021, with abdominal pain and vomiting. According to her family, she arrived […]
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Izabela (2021) † Poland
Pregnant woman suffers loss of amniotic fluid, but dies of sepsis because doctors waited for fetus to die. 30-year-old Izabela died on Sep 22. She was 22 weeks pregnant, married with one daughter, and had been taken to hospital due to loss of amniotic fluid from her uterus. According to the family’s attorney Jolanta Budzowska, […]
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Kristyn Fruit (2021) – West Virginia
Woman forced to travel for six hours for life-saving abortion In 2021, Kristyn Fruit became pregnant with her fourth child, a boy she planned to name Kase. Her 20-week ultrasound fond a rare abnormality. “He couldn’t make amniotic fluid. All of his urine was backed up into his kidneys and his bladder.” The baby was […]
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Marta (2020) – Spain
Miscarrying pregnant woman denied care at hospital, forced to go to private clinic while bleeding heavily When Spanish doctor Marta Vigara was 17 weeks pregnant in December 2020, her waters broke and she quickly realised the prognosis for her pregnancy was “very bad”. A geriatric specialist working at Madrid’s Clinico San Carlos hospital, she immediately […]
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Anonymous (2020) † Uruguay
According to Lilián Abracinskas: “Delayed care can be very dangerous. An example: we had one woman die because of lack of obstetric care after a legal abortion in 2020. She went through the consultations required by the law, took the pills as prescribed by the doctor. But when she experienced abdominal pains and came to […]