Letters to the Editor: I miscarried and was denied care at first. Will women die in antiabortion states?

To the editor: The scenario of a miscarrying patient being denied medical treatment is not hypothetical. It's reality — I know because I lived it. ("How treatment of miscarriages is upending the abortion debate," April 25)

In 1989, while living in Florida, I suffered a miscarriage at 14 weeks pregnant. Because my health insurance required that I go to one particular hospital (which did not allow abortions), my obstetrician was not able to give me the care I needed to prevent sepsis.

I went home and bled heavily for another week. Clearly frustrated by the hospital’s rule, my OB eventually told me to meet him at the emergency department. There, he led the orderly pushing my wheelchair to the elevators while ignoring protests from the admitting desk. He performed the needed procedure.

My care was not illegal at that time. My OB had been on the medical staff for decades and wasn’t concerned that he might get a "slap on the wrist" for performing a dilatation and curettage. He was more concerned for my health.

Today, in Florida, which has a six-week abortion ban, a doctor could fear being arrested for rendering this care. I wasn't yet so sick that my life was in immediate danger, but I could have eventually developed sepsis. It could have killed me and left my toddler without a mother.

If this happened when abortion was legal, imagine what is happening now in many states where it is not.

JK Hinger, Simi Valley

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To the editor: I take issue with your editorial board's contention that abortion laws such as those in Idaho treat women as incubators.

Women's lives are cheap, but incubators are expensive pieces of equipment. No state in the country would require healthcare facilities to withhold service until the unit was on the brink of complete burnout.

Shelley Wagers, Los Angeles

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.