By Josseli Barnica was suffering from a deadly infection from a miscarriage while at a hospital in Houston, Texas, but doctors had to wait to treat her due to the state’s abortion ban that limited how much care they could provide as her baby maintained a heartbeat.
“They had to wait until there was no heartbeat,” her husband told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to give her an abortion.”
Barnica, a 28-year-old Honduras immigrant, was 17 weeks pregnant when the miscarriage was “in progress.” After 40 hours in pain from the infection, she delivered the fetus after there was no longer a detectable heartbeat. She was then treated and told to go home, but three days later, she was dead.
More than a dozen medical experts told ProPublica that Barnica’s death was “preventable,” explaining that waiting that long to receive care opened her up to a fatal infection. Her cause of death was ruled to be “sepsis due to acute bacterial endometritis and cervicitis following spontaneous abortion of a 17-week stillbirth fetus with retained products of conception.”
However, the hospital stated that it was their “responsibility” to comply with state and federal laws and regulations, even though the Texas Heartbeat Act in place at the time threatened civil penalties for anyone who “aids or abets” the performance of an abortion.
Dr. Steven Porter, an OB-GYN in Cleveland, said: “We know that the sooner you intervene in these situations, the better outcomes are.” A Tennessee-based fetal-medicine specialist, Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung, acknowledged the physicians treating Barnica “absolutely didn’t do the right thing,” but noted they were in an untenable position due to the state laws.
Barnica’s tragic death highlights the devastating consequences of confusing laws surrounding reproductive care in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Her case is not an isolated incident, as other patients have shared similar horror stories about being denied vital medical care due to the changing legal landscape.
The hospital’s statement underscores the difficult position healthcare providers now find themselves in, torn between adhering to the law and providing the best possible care for their patients. As the debate around abortion rights continues, the human toll of these policies is becoming increasingly clear.
