‘I was violated and put in extreme danger’: women denied abortions sue over Arkansas ban | Abortion

AAs Emily Waldorf languished in an Arkansas hospital, she felt like “a ticking time bomb.” The year was 2024 and the physiotherapist was having a miscarriage, a much-desired pregnancy. But because her fetus still had a heartbeat, hospital officials said Arkansas’ near-total ban on abortion prevented them from taking steps to induce labor and end her pregnancy.

Instead, Waldorf had to wait and hope that she wouldn’t develop a deadly infection.

Waldorf’s sister, Elizabeth, called the office of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the Republican governor of Arkansas, to ask for help. “What do you expect from the governor? » asked an official in Sanders’ office. Waldorf, the official said, should “find a lawyer.”

Waldorf followed that advice, as a high-profile new lawsuit shows. On Wednesday, Waldorf, an obstetrician-gynecologist and three other Arkansas women who say they were also prevented from getting an abortion sued the state to try to repeal its near-total ban on abortion.

Two of these women say that, like Waldorf, they were denied abortions even though their pregnancies were actually over. One of the women claims she was unable to have an abortion after becoming pregnant following a sexual assault because Arkansas does not allow abortion in cases of rape.

“Arkansas’ abortion bans are vague, confusing, and, worst of all, extremely dangerous,” the lawsuit claims. “How are pregnant Arkansans supposed to access comprehensive obstetric care when leaving Arkansas means traveling through some of the most remote parts of the state, and when Arkansas is surrounded by other states with their own abortion bans?

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, sparking a wave of state-level abortion bans, dozens of women have come forward to say they were denied a medically necessary abortion. Many of these women have also joined lawsuits seeking to clarify exceptions to the abortion ban, meant to allow people to have abortions in emergencies. Doctors across the country said the exceptions were worded so vaguely that they were impractical in practice.

This lawsuit is the first filed by Amplify Legal, the litigation arm of Abortion in America, a reproductive rights group that focuses on sharing the stories of abortion patients and was co-founded by the late Cecile Richards, one of the most prominent abortion rights activists of the 21st century.

He argues that laws banning abortion in Arkansas — there are two virtually identical laws — must be repealed because they violate the state’s constitution and its guarantee that individuals have the rights to equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. According to the lawsuit, these anti-abortion laws not only infringe on people’s rights to choose how to start their families, but also threaten their lives, fertility and economic well-being.

They are also unconstitutionally vague, according to the lawsuit.

Waldorf’s account of his ordeal and his sister’s conversation with a Sanders official are among the allegations in the lawsuit. In response to questions about Waldorf’s allegations and the lawsuit, Sam Dubke, communications director for Sanders’ office, said in an email: “Arkansas has been named the most pro-life state in the nation for the sixth year in a row, not only because the Sanders administration provides comprehensive protections for unborn children, but also because Governor Sanders has made necessary investments in foster care and adoption, maternal health and child well-being. Governor Sanders looks forward to defending the laws Arkansas pro-life in court.”

Ultimately, the lawsuit says, hospital officials agreed to transport Waldorf in an ambulance to another hospital in Kansas, which allows abortions. This hospital prompted Waldorf, who was about 17 weeks pregnant. Waldorf gave birth to a baby who died shortly after birth. Waldorf, now 40, named her Bee.

“She felt she had no choice”

Chelsea Stovall, another plaintiff, is a 35-year-old mother of two. At the end of 2022, she learned that the fetus she was carrying had a congenital anomaly which doomed the pregnancy. Stovall and her husband emptied their bank account and savings to travel to Illinois to have an abortion, according to the lawsuit.

At the Illinois clinic, an anti-abortion protester threw a bloody Maxi Pad at their car, according to the lawsuit.

A third plaintiff, Theresa Van, 30, became pregnant in 2023 but soon learned she did not have enough amniotic fluid for her fetus to develop, according to the lawsuit. However, because her fetus still had a heartbeat, she was unable to abort. She continued her pregnancy for several weeks, at increasing risk to herself, until the fetal heartbeat disappeared and she gave birth to a stillborn daughter.

The lawsuit alleges Van feared criminal prosecution if she tried to leave the state to have an abortion. “Additionally, the financial pressure of traveling for abortion care was too intense. She felt she had no choice but to continue her pregnancy until her daughter’s death,” the lawsuit states.

The fourth woman suing Arkansas, Allison Howland, became pregnant in 2024, according to the lawsuit, after being sexually assaulted at a hotel in 2024. Rather than immediately traveling out of state to have an abortion, she continued the pregnancy for weeks in hopes that police could use DNA from the pregnancy to prove her allegations against the attacker, according to the lawsuit.

However, police concluded there was little they could do, since the alleged attacker claimed the encounter was consensual. A detective reportedly told Howland that the attacker “seemed like a really nice guy.” When Howland informed police she was planning to have an abortion in Illinois and asked if she should keep the remains of the pregnancy, a detective told her to “not worry about it,” as the lawsuit says, because police were unable to properly care for the potential evidence.

“I don’t want to keep the proceeds of this assault,” Howland said, quoted in the lawsuit. “Call it selfish, but I stand by it. I was raped and put in extreme danger and living in a state like Arkansas, I was royally screwed.”