Mylissa McNeill, sitting outside her home in Jacksonville, Arctic, earlier this year, claims she was denied prompt care for a miscarriage in August 2022. It was the beginning of a cascade of health problems that she blames, at least in part, on hospitals’ reluctance to provide miscarriage care that could conflict with state abortion bans. (Photo: Katie Adkins/Arkansas Advocate)
Mylissa McNeill never expected to become a mother. But when she found out she was pregnant in the spring of 2022, at the age of 41, she and her partner were elated and excited about the prospect of motherhood to a little girl they planned to name Maeve.
On June 24, 2022, about a month after McNeill discovered she was pregnant, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Dobbs ruling in Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion and authorizing states to ban it. Missouri was the first state to implement a ban; at the time, McNeill was living in Joplin, Missouri.
In August 2022, McNeill suffered a miscarriage. It was the beginning of a health crisis that plagues her to this day, which she blames, at least in part, on hospitals’ reluctance to provide miscarriage care, which may conflict with state abortion bans.
Missouri’s law banned almost all abortions but allowed abortion providers who were charged or sued under the law to avoid punishment by arguing that they were acting in a “medical emergency” to prevent the death of a pregnant woman or “to prevent a serious risk of significant and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
Missouri’s ban is no longer in effect – it was overturned by voters in 2024 – but such language is typical: All 13 states with current abortion bans allow the procedure to protect the life of the pregnant woman. Some, but not all, prohibitions also have exceptions designed to protect the woman’s health.
But patients and providers do argued in trials challenging the bans, arguing that such exceptions are too ill-defined to give doctors and hospitals enough certainty to provide timely care. McNeill believes her ongoing health problems are due to delayed care.
In early August 2022, less than two months after Missouri’s ban went into effect, McNeill’s water broke after about 18 weeks. She says her OB-GYN told her the pregnancy was no longer viable, so she sought an abortion and miscarriage treatment procedure known as dilation and curettage, or D&C, at hospitals in Missouri and Kansas (where abortion was legal). However, doctors refused to provide miscarriage care even though they were able to detect fetal heart activity.
After three days of bleeding and pain, McNeill finally received treatment at an Illinois hospital. McNeill said that when she underwent another tubal ligation to prevent a future pregnancy, medical staff told her she had scarring from an infection that developed after her water broke.
“When they were there, they saw what happened,” McNeill said. “The infection went outside my uterus. It went to my liver, and my liver is permanently attached in multiple places. It’s attached to my uterus; it’s attached to the lining of my stomach.”
McNeill says the lingering effects of the infection include severe bouts of vomiting and significant financial difficulties as she struggled to pay for care without indefinite health insurance.
“I’m literally bursting every blood vessel in my skin… That kind of pain is… there’s no word for it,” said McNeill, who shared photos with Stateline of her red-spotted face and magenta nose. “This delay really upset me because the women died in less time than I did, and this delay and the infection I contracted while waiting three days destroyed my life.”
Last year, states included: Texas, Kentucky AND Tennessee has passed legislation to provide additional clarity on medical exceptions to their prohibitions, but confusion persists in these and other states. Stories of denial of care for miscarriage they continue to appearincluding in a completely modern lawsuit in Texas, AND several deaths partly attributed to restrictions on abortion, including in Georgia and Texas. The research has been linked abortion restrictions leading to more maternal deaths and injuries.
“The four years since the Dobbs decision (v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization) have unfortunately confirmed what obstetrician-gynecologists already knew: abortion care is inextricably linked to reproductive health care,” Molly Meegan, legal director and general counsel of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement.
“Bannings and restrictions on abortion care have resulted in patients across the country being denied care, even in the event of pregnancy loss or miscarriage.”
A modern study published last month by Journal of the American Medical Association found that since the Dobbs decision, in states where abortion bans have gone into effect, treatment for miscarriages has moved away from medical intervention toward a wait-and-see approach.
But anti-abortion groups blame doctors and abortion rights advocates for creating confusion over medical exceptions to abortion bans, insisting that it is clear what is a medically indicated abortion and what is a purely elective one.
“As the architects of most of the nation’s pro-life laws, Americans United for Life has made clear that no one prevents women from receiving life-saving care for miscarriage. Efforts to suggest otherwise are made in bad faith,” said Gavin Oxley, a spokesman for the group.
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Dr. Susan Bane, an OB/GYN in Greenville, North Carolina, who is on the list management for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Pro-Life told Stateline that doctors – especially the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – wrongly blamed abortion bans for denying medical care to women who are pregnant or miscarrying.
“There is nothing, and I mean zero, in any of these laws that say he has to die or have septicemia,” Bane said. “I’ve done this hundreds of times over the last 30 years, while the baby was alive, I sat at the bedside and had a painful conversation with a woman who said, ‘I’m so sorry, but if we don’t go into labor, I’m worried you’ll both die.’
She said her organization supports the state’s laws, just like the one logged in South Dakota earlier this year, they redefined “abortion” as the intentional ending of the life of an “unborn child.” Supporters say such laws will enable doctors to deal with miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and other pregnancy-related emergencies.
“It’s sad that there is no further explanation, but the guilt actually started with my profession.” Bane said.
But Meegan said attempts to introduce health exemption laws do not protect all patients.
“There is no law or exception that explains the vast variety of medical situations that can occur during pregnancy,” she wrote. “And there is no additional legislation that could repair the harm caused by abortion bans beyond repealing the bans themselves.”
McNeill said she lost her job and the health insurance that came with it after her miscarriage. She filed a lawsuit and then settled with a hospital in Missouri that she said resulted in her being denied timely care. However, she is still searching for relief from her health problems and claims to have incurred significant medical debt.
She and her husband moved to Arkansas and then Kansas in search of the financial stability that had eluded them since her miscarriage nearly four years ago.
“With this whole illness, I’m in the multi-million dollar debt and not covered by insurance for a long period of time,” McNeill said. “Now that my credit is ruined, I will never be able to buy a house again with this health.”
Stateline reporter Sofia Resnick can be reached at: sresnick@stateline.org.
This story was originally produced by State linewhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
