A Louisiana woman who spoke at the Democratic National Convention about being denied miscarriage care because of Louisiana’s abortion ban is now criticizing Attorney General Liz Murrill and anti-abortion activists for their response to her speech.
Kaitlyn Joshua was about 11 weeks pregnant when she suffered a miscarriage in the fall of 2022, just months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, triggering a near-total abortion ban in Louisiana. Joshua sought care at two different hospitals – Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge General in Prairieville – and was turned away from both without treatment.
Health news from WWNO, NPR and KFF first reported on Joshua’s story in 2022. She has shared it regularly at events across the country and on national television in the run-up to the election as she fights to elect a Democratic president to the White House. But her speech on Monday evening was the most sensational and made headlines in Louisiana and across the country.
After Joshua’s speech, Murrill posted on X that “the Democrats are getting the facts wrong.”
“There is nothing in our bipartisan law that prohibits emergency care for a woman who is having a miscarriage or in any other emergency situation during pregnancy. Nothing. Stop it,” Murrill posted.
Murrill: “The Democrats have misunderstood the facts”
“In fact, doctors are legally obligated to care for a pregnant woman when an acute health crisis occurs, be it appendicitis or a miscarriage,” she continued.
News Reports quote Murrill’s original post, which appears to have been edited, as saying that the law was “passed during the administration of Governor John Bel Edwards.”
“It’s so damaging that the Republican Party can’t admit that the reason we’re in this predicament in Louisiana with regard to reproductive rights is 100% their fault,” Joshua said in an interview with WWNO/WRKF.
“It’s typical Republican behavior that they reject any opportunity to be held accountable for their actions,” Joshua added. “They don’t want to face it and see what it really looks like, what the impact is when you pass harmful legislation, particularly what it looks like from the perspective of black maternal health.”
Women in Louisiana face some of the highest maternal mortality rates. Death And morbidity in the nation and black women in the state are more than twice as likely to die from the consequences of pregnancy as white womenA Commonwealth Fund study found that states with abortion restrictions were more likely fewer health services for mothers and higher mortality and morbidity rates. Research published earlier this year by Tulane University found that abortion restrictions are associated with an increased risk of maternal death.
Under Louisiana’s ban, doctors who violate the law face up to 15 years in prison and a $200,000 fine. Doctors must provide a diagnosis in the woman’s medical record and ultrasound evidence that a pregnancy “has ended or is in the inevitable and untreatable process of termination due to spontaneous miscarriage.” Doctors have said this is a high legal hurdle to overcome. complicate Miscarriages are treated quickly. In some cases, the fetus may still have a weak heartbeat, which is what happened when Joshua first sought help.
Beginning of the year A detailed report found that several cases of women were turned away from hospitals, while Miscarriages. One doctor reported that hospital officials aborted a woman’s abortion while debating whether her treatment was legal under Louisiana’s ban. The report found other dangerous changes in prenatal care in Louisiana, including doctors giving women unnecessary and invasive cesarean sections to avoid even the appearance of an abortion.
Republican lawmakers have opposed bills in the last two legislative sessions that sought to reduce the legal burdens and risks for health care providers, such as requiring only a doctor’s diagnosis of pregnancy termination to provide treatment.
Who is Kaitlyn Joshua, the Louisiana woman who spoke at the Democratic National Convention?
The MPs also rejected draft laws that would have included exceptions for rape and incest in the law.
Joshua told WWNO/WRKF that after two years of impacts on prenatal care and maternal health, the “logical thing to do” was to make changes to the law.
“You were very proud of the work you did in 2022 to destroy our reproductive health care rights in our state,” Joshua said, referring to Republicans including Murrill.
“And now you see this playing out in real time and it’s staring you in the face and instead of taking responsibility for it, you want to blame it on someone else, like John Bel (Edwards).”
The Louisiana ban was written by Democratic Representative Katrina Jackson, passed by a Republican majority in the House, and signed by Edwards.
Before being elected attorney general, Murrill served as Louisiana’s attorney general, during which time she helped defend Louisiana’s abortion ban. She worked under then-Attorney General, now Governor Jeff Landry. When state courts briefly suspended Louisiana’s abortion ban in the summer of 2022, threatened doctors face criminal prosecution if they assisted in an abortion.
Louisiana Right to Life also released a statement Wednesday defending the state’s abortion ban, calling Joshua’s story an example of a “gross misinterpretation” of the law by health care providers.
Communications director Sarah Zagorski said the responsibility for Joshua’s care lies with hospitals that misinterpreted the law and that the law clearly allows for treatment of miscarriage.
“Unfortunately, the DNC is using a tragic story to sow confusion and disapproval for pro-life legislation,” Zagorski said in a statement. “They are not hiding their agenda, but are proudly carrying out abortions at their own convention.”
Louisiana Right to Life also released statements from a New Orleans gynecologist who said she continues to treat miscarriages, and from Tara Wicker, director of Louisiana Black Advocates for Life.
“There is no denying that Kaitlyn Joshua experienced inadequate health care in the community I love very much. I also recognize that there are systemic problems in our health care system that particularly affect women of color,” Wicker said. “However, these problems are neither alleviated nor solved by legal abortion.”
Joshua rejected Zagorski’s claim that the law clearly allows treatment for miscarriages and asked what relevance the comments of a New Orleans gynecologist had to her case.
In a Instagram postJoshua said it was “alarming” to hear Murrill’s comment on her case, nearly two years after she first began telling her story.
“If Liz wanted to bring attention to the black maternal health care crisis in the state of Louisiana, she could have, but instead she chose to use her power and her voice to erase someone’s story,” Joshua said.
Joshua said she wanted people to know “what is happening in our state of Louisiana, where women speak out and are then pressured or threatened or receive messages from the attorney general.”
She added that Murrill had not reached out to her personally, but said she would “love to” talk to Murrill about her experiences, “and we don’t have to hide behind social media or public statements.”
Murrill’s comment on X that “physicians are required by law to provide care to a pregnant woman who experiences an acute health crisis” appears to refer to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds to provide stabilizing treatment to all patients.
However, her office argues that EMTALA should not mandate emergency treatment for pregnant women if such treatment is prohibited by state law.
In 2022, the Biden administration sued Idaho over the state’s abortion ban amid stories of women routinely flown out of the state to receive medical care because of the ban. Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court ruled temporarily permitted Emergency abortions in Idaho.
Idaho had argues that state law takes precedence over EMTALA, meaning that the federal requirement for emergency medical treatment should not be extended to pregnancies in states with abortion bans. It was also argued that a fertilized egg is considered a patient.
Murrill, as Attorney General of Louisiana, signed a Amicus Curiae Brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, along with 21 other states, siding with Idaho, arguing that “EMTALA cannot be construed to override state laws regulating medicine, including abortion restrictions.”
