Here is a collection of stories where women were refused a legal abortion and suffered serious injury or injustice as a result, including death in some cases. Doctors and hospitals are rarely punished or convicted for these wrongdoings.
Media coverage about serious consequences of belief-based care denial usually only happens when a woman dies, or a woman or her family sues. Here are their stories we could find, but these must be the tip of the iceberg. We know nothing about the vast majority of belief-based denials, or what happens to the victims.
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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 […]
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Chelsea (2018) – USA
Woman with serious health risks and lethal fetal abnormality denied abortion at hospital because she wasn’t sick enough In December 2018, Chelsea was about 15 weeks into a planned pregnancy when a specialist at University of Cincinnati Medical Center told her that her fetus had triploidy, a condition where three sets of chromosomes develop in […]
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Carmela (2018) – Argentina
Woman with anencephalic pregnancy denied abortion with forced birth at 7 months gestation In November 2018, Carmela Toledo, 23, found out that she was carrying a fetus with anencephaly, a condition that makes it difficult for the fetus to survive. Carmela was 25 weeks pregnant. She went to a public hospital in Buenos Aires province […]
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Anonymous (likely 2018) – Chile
A woman with serious health risks was denied a legal abortion, then forced to have a C-section when her health deteriorated dangerously. In a study that explored the experiences of four pregnant people who were legally entitled to but denied access to legal abortion in Chile, one participant was clearly denied abortion due to belief-based […]
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Dr. Ralph’s patient (2017) – USA
Miscarrying woman refused termination, forced to get very sick and suffer through prolonged labour In early 2017, a woman arrived at Wheaton Franciscan-St. Joseph hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in labour. She was 18 weeks pregnant with twins. She miscarried one fetus within hours of admission, but the second still had a heartbeat. Because the hospital […]
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Anonymous (2017) – Argentina
Doctor obstructs legal abortion in Argentina, ruin’s young woman’s life In 2017, a 19-year old woman in Argentina requested an abortion due to rape and was admitted to hospital with contractions. The physician gave her a number of medicines without her consent, which stopped the contractions. He admitted her to the mental health unit where […]
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Andrea (2017) – Costa Rica
Young incest victim forced to give birth to her father’s child Andrea was a pregnant victim of incest at 12 years old. In February 2017, her mother went public about the sexual violence Andrea had suffered from her father. “After she told me about what happened with her father, she became extremely anxious and told […]
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Valentina Milluzzo † (2016) – Italy
In October 2016, Valentina Milluzzo of Italy, 32, was miscarrying much-wanted twins at 19 weeks of pregnancy. But she died in the Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania Sicily after being denied an abortion, despite no hope for survival of her twins. She became septic and suffered hours of agony while sepsis destroyed her organs. A doctor […]
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Ana (2014) – Spain
Woman suffers serious harm after being denied right to information on serious condition affecting her fetus Ana (not her real name) was denied information on the serious condition affecting her fetus for almost six weeks. Due to this violation of her right to information, as well as the discrimination she faced in the Santa Lucía […]
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Agnieszka (2014) – Poland
In 2014, Agnieszka (a pseudonym) had to give birth to a child with acrania – with half its skull missing – because the doctor delayed the diagnosis until it was too late to have an abortion. His “conscience” wouldn’t allow him to terminate the pregnancy. It did, however, allow him to force the patient to […]
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Immigrant rape victim (2014) – Ireland
The Guardian, August 2014, by Henry McDonald Woman denied abortion in Ireland ‘became pregnant after rape’ A recent immigrant to Ireland (unnamed) was raped in her country before coming to Ireland and became pregnant. She requested an abortion at 8 weeks because she was suicidal, but was refused by a panel even though the new […]