Feds: Hospitals that denied emergency abortion broke the law

By AMANDA SEITZ
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A first-of-its-kind federal investigation has found two hospitals put a pregnant woman’s life in jeopardy and violated federal law by refusing to provide an emergency abortion when she experienced premature labor at 17 weeks. The findings are revealed in documents obtained by The Associated Press. The findings serve as a warning to hospitals around the country as they struggle to reconcile new state laws banning or severely restricting abortion with a federal mandate for doctors to provide abortions when a woman’s health is at risk. The hospitals in question are in Missouri and Kansas. The hospitals haven’t responded to requests for comment. The woman had to travel to an abortion clinic in Illinois.