Earlier this year, at a large hospital in Houston, a pregnant woman
Earlier this year, at a large hospital in Houston, a pregnant woman came into the emergency room. She had severe preeclampsia, the ob-gyn who treated her told me, and it had evolved into something called HELLP syndrome—a condition that can cause liver and kidney failure in the mother. To the doctor, it was obvious that the patient needed to have the choice to have an abortion to stay alive. However, under the new hospital rules, the patient had to wait until a perinatologist and a maternal fetal expert reviewed her case, attested to her level of medical extremity, and offered their clearance.