Victims of Belief-based Denial
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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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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 […]
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Denise (2016) – Northern Ireland
Denise Phelan was denied a legal abortion three years ago in circumstances so extreme she still finds it harrowing to speak about it. “My anger wakes me up at night. It’s a deep, almost in-the-bone anger,” she says. She and her husband, Richard Gosnold, are also still grieving for the loss of their baby, Alenja. […]
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Leticia (2019) – Argentina
Woman pregnant from rape denied abortion, does self-abortion and almost bleeds to death because treatment delayed due to judgment In September 2019, Leticia H. (a pseudonym), 19, went to a public hospital in northern Argentina to end a pregnancy caused by rape. She was 17 weeks pregnant. The hospital denied the abortion, citing an informal […]
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Lucia (2019) – Argentina
11-year old rape victim denied abortion and forced to give birth by C-section “Lucia”, an 11-year-old victim of rape by her grandmother’s 65-year old partner was forced to gave birth in the province of Tucumán, Argentina on Feb 26, 2019, after she was denied an abortion by authorities and doctors for nearly five weeks. Lucia […]