Abortion in America

Harmonie pleaded for help as she suffered through her ectopic pregnancy in Illinois. Instead, she was denied care and lost her fertility.

June 1, 2026

When Harmonie Perrone walked through the doors of Advocate Good Shepherd—a religiously-affiliated hospital in the suburbs of Illinois—she remembers feeling the heavy weight of sadness taking over. 

As a 28-year-old mom, Harmonie had a history of two prior ectopic pregnancies, a life-threatening emergency that, if left untreated, could lead to the rupture of a fallopian tube and severe internal bleeding. She had already suffered the loss of her right fallopian tube and she feared that, this time, she could lose her left. 

“I was so sad this was happening again. I remember crying my eyes out to the front staff. I couldn’t hold myself together. They got me back quickly though. I thought I was safe. In good hands,” recalls Harmonie. 

On October 8, Harmonie noticed some light vaginal bleeding. The next morning, the bleeding continued, and a few hours later, she began to feel cramping and pain radiating up to her shoulder. She panicked. These were exactly the symptoms she had experienced during her two prior ectopic pregnancies. She immediately called her husband at work. 

Having seen his wife experience these symptoms before, he understood this was an emergency. He left his company truck unattended and rushed home to take her to the emergency room.  

Harmonie describes her husband’s reaction as “watching the hope drain from his face. He spoke softly to me, assuring me that he would be here by my side and to tell him if I needed anything, but his face carried the heaviness. He knew. I knew.”

Illinois’ state law requires hospitals to provide emergency care for ectopic pregnancies and prohibits hospitals from discriminating against their patients on the basis of pregnancy or reproductive health decisions. It never occurred to Harmonie that she would not receive the standard of care that is typical for an ectopic pregnancy when detected early: injection of a medication called methotrexate, which prevents the cells in the pregnancy from continuing to grow.

Harmonie and her husband arrived at the emergency room of Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital around 11 a.m. on October 9. She told the medical staff she thought she was having an ectopic pregnancy and proceeded to explain her medical history. She promptly received bloodwork and an ultrasound. 

Her results, received several hours later, suggested that she was indeed having another ectopic pregnancy. Crying, Harmonie reiterated that this was not her first time and she was terrified her fallopian tube would burst. She didn’t want surgery. She didn’t want to lose her tube. She asked for the medication to stop her pregnancy from killing her. 

Despite her pleas for treatment, she was denied care and turned away from the religiously-affiliated hospital without ever seeing the on-call OB/GYN, Dr. Dympna Coll. She was told to visit Dr. Coll’s outpatient office the next day, where Dr. Coll again refused her care. While refusing to treat her ectopic pregnancy, Dr. Coll told Harmonie and her husband that “there was a 1% chance that there is a baby in there”, and that she could not “in good faith intervene at this time.”

“I felt like I was going to die and no one cared. I was shocked, angry, and confused. I was sitting back with everything in mind because I was so shocked. I felt like I was going crazy. I really thought ‘This is it. This is how I’m going to die,’” says Harmonie. 

Instead, Dr. Coll directed Harmonie to another facility that did not even have an OB/GYN. By the time she received treatment for her ectopic pregnancy, it was too late. Her pregnancy ruptured and Harmonie was forced to have emergency surgery to remove her remaining fallopian tube.  

When Harmonie got home, she “was so shocked by my experience and I needed to talk about it. The events that unfolded were just insane to me.” So she posted on her TikTok account, @catlife669, and her video went viral.

She thought she’d now get the opportunity to grieve the loss of her fertility with her husband. Instead, the same doctor who had refused her care sued her for defamation. Harmonie now joins Amplify Legal in defending herself against Dr. Coll’s claims for defamation while still dealing with the trauma and loss she suffered at Dr. Coll’s hands. 

“My husband and I have been trying to start a family for years. It’s exhausting to get your hopes up time and time again just for it all to come to a devastating end. I thought that building my family with my husband would be my choice. Sweet and intimate. Where we build core memories together and laugh about all the silly things we did in our 20’s. I didn’t want to have kids after 30 because I wanted to be a youthful grandma one day. Now we will have to go through immense medical treatment hoping that IVF takes and instead of fun core memories it will be plastic beds and needles. Plus more disappointment every time a round fails. And then, only if we can afford it. The damage is permanent. I would have never thought I wouldn’t be able to get reproductive health care in Illinois. Not at all. I was shocked and still shocked to this day. This experience took a sense of my identity and unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of choice to get that back.”

If you or someone you love have been denied abortion or other reproductive care, contact Abortion in America or reach out directly to our team at Amplify Legal.