A Texas mother suffering a miscarriage died after waiting 40 hours for care because hospital staff feared she would be charged with a crime.
Josseli Barnica, 28, was pregnant with her second child when she developed complications at 17 weeks.
The fetus was coming out and her cervix was dilated, and doctors noted that Houston’s mother’s miscarriage was “in progress,” a ProPública report found.
However, doctors told her and her husband that, under Texas law, they would have to wait until there was no fetal heartbeat before they could intervene.
Just two days earlier, on September 1, 2021, the state’s ‘six-week’ abortion law had been passed, prohibiting the procedure from the moment the fetus has a heartbeat.
Josseli Barnica, a 28-year-old Houston mother, died after waiting an agonizing 40 hours to receive care for her miscarriage.
Barnica remained untreated for almost two days, resulting in a fatal infection.
She died just three days after giving birth, on September 8, from “acute bacterial endometritis and cervicitis following a spontaneous abortion,” according to her medical notes.
“I was hoping he would come home,” Barnica’s husband said.
“Josseli Barnica should be alive today, but because of Texas’ cruel abortion ban she was unable to receive the care she needed,” said Texas Rep. Colin Allred. ‘
“We must ensure that every Texas woman can access the life-saving care she needs.”
Roe v. Wade had not yet been overturned at the time of Barnica’s death, however, Texas had enacted strict civil penalties for doctors who performed abortions after six weeks, allowing the public to sue them for $10,000 judgments.
Texas abortion laws prohibit the procedure once the fetus’s heartbeat is detected, except in circumstances where the mother’s life is in danger.
She was pregnant with her second child when she developed complications at 17 weeks and died from a bacterial infection after doctors waited almost two days to treat her.
However, critics say ambiguity within the legislation has left doctors hamstrung.
ACLU of Texas Senior Attorney David Donatti said KVUE Abortion laws are unclear, and confusion is proving deadly.
“Doctors feel torn between liability lawsuits from private bounty hunters, 99 years in prison, or committing medical malpractice at the expense of people’s health and livelihoods,” Donatti told KVUE.
The doctors responsible for her care cited Texas abortion laws that prevented them from acting until the fetus’s heartbeat could no longer be detected for failing to act sooner.
But Texas Alliance For Life communications director Amy O’Donnell blamed Barnica’s death on his doctors and not the law.
“They want to blame someone who doesn’t have it,” O’Donnell said.
‘Physicians must provide the standard of care using reasonable medical judgment to perform life-saving abortions before the threat to the mother’s life is imminent, and Texas law allows this.
“The deaths are tragic and the preventable deaths are even more so.”
Reports of Barnica’s death came after stories emerged about the deaths of Georgia woman Amber Thurman and Candi Miller after they were unable to receive timely medical care.
The state’s maternal mortality review committee deemed the deaths “preventable.” Abortion is prohibited in Georgia after six weeks, with some exceptions.