{"id":18849,"date":"2026-06-30T14:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18849"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:32:23","slug":"miscarriage-management-remains-muddled-4-years-after-dobbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18849","title":{"rendered":"Miscarriage management remains muddled 4 years after Dobbs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Sofia Resnick, Stateline.org<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mylissa McNeill never expected to be a mother. But when she learned she was pregnant in the spring of 2022, at age 41, she and her partner were happy and excited at the prospect of parenting\u00a0a little girl they planned to name\u00a0Maeve.<\/p>\n

Read more Job openings stayed at a surprisingly strong 7.6 million in May; US labor market proves resilient<\/a><\/p>\n

On June 24, 2022, about one month after McNeill discovered she was pregnant, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its Dobbs ruling, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion and empowering states to outlaw it. Missouri was the first state to enact a ban; at that time, McNeill was living in Joplin, Missouri.<\/p>\n

In August 2022, McNeill miscarried. It was the beginning of a health crisis that plagues her to this day and that she blames, at least in part, on hospitals\u2019 reluctance to provide miscarriage management care that might run afoul of state abortion bans.<\/p>\n

Missouri\u2019s law prohibited nearly all abortions, but it allowed abortion providers who were charged or sued under the law to escape punishment by arguing that they acted in a \u201cmedical emergency\u201d to prevent the death of the pregnant woman or to avert \u201ca serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missouri\u2019s ban is no longer in effect \u2014 it was overturned by voters in 2024 \u2014 but such language is typical: All 13 states that currently have abortion bans allow the procedure to protect the life of the pregnant woman. Some, but not all, of the bans also have exceptions to protect the health of the woman.<\/p>\n

But patients and providers have argued in lawsuits challenging the bans that such exceptions are too ill defined to give doctors and hospitals enough confidence to provide timely care. McNeill believes that her persistent health problems are the result of delayed care.<\/p>\n

In early August 2022, less than two months after Missouri\u2019s ban took effect, McNeill\u2019s water broke at about 18 weeks. She says her OB-GYN told her the pregnancy was no longer viable, and she sought an abortion and miscarriage management procedure known as dilation and curettage, or D&C, in hospitals in both Missouri and Kansas (where abortion was legal). However, doctors declined to provide miscarriage care while they were able to detect fetal cardiac activity.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

After three days of bleeding and aching, McNeill finally received treatment at a hospital in Illinois. When she had a subsequent tubal ligation to prevent future pregnancies, McNeill said medical staff told her she had scar tissue resulting from an infection she developed after her water broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile they were in there, they saw what happened,\u201d McNeill said. \u201cThe infection went outside of my uterus. It went to my liver, and my liver is permanently attached in multiple places. It\u2019s attached to my uterus; it\u2019s attached to my stomach lining.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNeill says the lingering effects of that infection include severe bouts of vomiting and significant financial hardship as she has struggled to pay for care without steady health care coverage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally break all the blood vessels in my skin. \u2026 This kind of pain is \u2014 there\u2019s no word for it,\u201d said McNeill, who shared with Stateline pictures of her face covered in red splotches, her nose magenta. \u201cThe delay is what really upset me, because women have died with less time than I had, and that delay and the infection that I did get from this by waiting three days, it destroyed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Last year, states including Texas, Kentucky and Tennessee enacted laws designed to provide additional clarity on medical exceptions to their bans, but confusion persists in those states and others. Stories of denied miscarriage care continue to emerge, including in a brand-new lawsuit in Texas,\u00a0and several deaths have been attributed in part to abortion restrictions, including in Georgia and Texas. Research has linked abortion restrictions to higher rates of maternal death and injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe four years since the Dobbs (v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization) decision have unfortunately proven what OB-GYNs already knew: abortion care is inextricable from reproductive health care,\u201d Molly Meegan, chief legal officer and general counsel for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBans and restrictions on abortion care have resulted in patients across the country being denied care, even in instances of pregnancy loss and miscarriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new study published last month by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that since the Dobbs decision, in states where abortion bans took effect, miscarriage management has shifted away from medical intervention toward more of a \u201cwait-and-see\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

Read more Wall Street drifts toward the finish of a tough June<\/a><\/p>\n

But anti-abortion groups blame doctors and abortion-rights advocates for creating confusion around the medical exceptions in abortion bans, insisting it is clear what is a medically indicated abortion and what is purely elective.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs architects of the majority of the nation\u2019s pro-life laws, Americans United for Life has been very clear that none prevent women from receiving life-saving miscarriage care. Efforts to suggest otherwise are made in bad faith\u201d said Gavin Oxley, a spokesperson for the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors who delay or altogether deny medical treatment must be held accountable for the harm they inflict upon women. If doctors are not clear on this four years after Dobbs, they clearly have not been listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Susan Bane, an OB-GYN in Greenville, North Carolina, who is on the board of directors for the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told Stateline that doctors \u2014 especially the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists \u2014 have unfairly blamed abortion bans for the denial of medical care to pregnant or miscarrying women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing, I mean zero, about any of these laws that say you have to have her dying or septic,\u201d Bane said. \u201cI\u2019ve done this hundreds of times in the last 30 years, where the baby was alive, and I sat at the bedside and had an excruciating conversation with a woman to say, \u2018I am so sorry, but if we don\u2019t move towards delivery, I\u2019m worried both of you will die.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her organization supports state laws, like one signed in South Dakota earlier this year, that redefine \u201cabortion\u201d as the\u00a0intentional\u00a0ending of the life of the \u201cunborn child.\u201d Supporters say such laws will allow doctors to manage miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and other pregnancy-related emergencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad that more clarification isn\u2019t happening, but the blame really started right in my profession.\u201d Bane said.<\/p>\n

But Meegan said attempts to legislate health exceptions fall short of protecting all patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no law or exception that can account for the immense variety of medical situations that can present in pregnancy,\u201d she wrote. \u201cAnd there is no additional legislation that can undo the harm created by abortion bans short of repealing the bans themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

McNeill said that following her miscarriage, she lost her job and the health insurance that came with it. She sued and then reached a settlement with the Missouri hospital that she believes denied her prompt care. But she continues to search for relief from her health problems, and says she has racked up substantial medical debt.<\/p>\n

She and her husband moved to Arkansas and then Kansas in search of the financial stability that has eluded them since her miscarriage almost four years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy debt is in the millions with all of this illness without coverage for long periods,\u201d McNeill said. \u201cNow that my credit is destroyed, I\u2019ll never be able to buy a house again while in this health.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stateline reporter Sofia Resnick can be reached at<\/em> sresnick@stateline.org<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a92026 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Why most Black Americans say they never fly the American flag, according to a new poll<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stories of denied miscarriage care continue to emerge, including in a lawsuit in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nMiscarriage management remains muddled 4 years after Dobbs - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=18849\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miscarriage management remains muddled 4 years after Dobbs - 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