Texas' abortion laws caused excruciating delay for Houston woman's pregnancy loss treatment, doctor says
At 12-weeks pregnant, Kristina Cruickshank and her husband, John, found out their fetus...
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In her 15th week of pregnancy, a large fluid-filled sac surrounded the fetus, most prominently around the head and neck. Massive cysts, some filled with blood, covered her enlarged ovaries in a "spoke wheel pattern," according to her medical records. Additional fluid had filled parts of her abdomen.
The 35-year-old Rosenberg woman was frail, vomiting and in pain when she and her husband, John, arrived at Houston Methodist Sugar Land on Friday, June 3. She needed an abortion. But according to Dr. Lauren Swords, the maternal medical director at the hospital's childbirth center, no one at the hospital was equipped to perform the necessary procedure, known as dilation and evacuation. It also was not clear whether Kristina was exempt from Texas abortion laws, which threaten providers with felonies and lawsuits for performing abortions except to treat a miscarriage or a loosely defined "medical emergency." Her fetus still had a heartbeat, and she did not yet need life-saving care.