Her miscarriage left her bleeding profusely. An Ohio ER sent her home to wait
Synopsis
Christiana Zielke, a D.C. resident, began bleeding profusely from a miscarriage while on a road trip through Painesville, Ohio with her husband. Despite urgently needing an abortion, the staff at a local hospital refused to treat her. Hours later, Christiana’s condition deteriorated, and in her words, she felt “the world slip away.” It was only after being rushed back to the same hospital — in an ambulance, unconscious — that she received the medical care she needed.
Even though Christina lives in D.C., a place with strong abortion protections, she was still denied care when she had a medical emergency in a state with an abortion ban. Afterwards, she filed a complaint against the hospital and shared her story with NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin, illustrating the trauma of being refused emergency care.
I didn’t make it back through the door again until there was blood running down into my shoes.
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