Emily Waldorf, a 38-year-old acute care physical therapist at Washington Regional Hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas, experienced a life-threatening miscarriage last September that her doctors said they could not treat under the state's abortion ban because the fetus still had a detectable heartbeat. Waldorf was 17 weeks pregnant when she began bleeding and discovered her amniotic sac funneling into her dilated cervix.
According to her account documented in a journal she shared with ProPublica, three doctors at Washington Regional gathered on Sept. 16, 2024, and explained that the longer her cervix remained open and her uterus exposed to bacteria, the higher her risk of developing a life-threatening infection. They said standard medical care would be to quickly empty her womb, but they could not perform the procedure due to Arkansas' abortion ban enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
What the Left Is Saying
Abortion rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers say Waldorf's case illustrates how strict abortion bans with limited exceptions force physicians into medical limbo, delaying care that could prevent serious complications or death. 'Our hands are tied behind our backs,' Dr. Erin Large told Waldorf during her hospital stay, according to Waldorf's journal.
Organizations including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have argued that laws criminalizing abortion create fear among physicians about legal repercussions, leading them to wait until patients are critically ill before acting. Democratic legislators in Arkansas and across the country have proposed bills to expand medical exceptions or clarify when doctors can intervene during miscarriages and other pregnancy emergencies.
Groups like Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights say such cases demonstrate why abortion should be legal regardless of circumstances, arguing that no law can anticipate every medical scenario. They point to similar incidents reported in Texas, Idaho, and other states with strict bans as evidence of a systemic problem affecting women's health care.
What the Right Is Saying
Anti-abortion advocates argue that Arkansas' law contains exceptions for medical emergencies and that physicians should use their judgment to determine when intervention is legally permitted. They note that no anti-abortion organization supports prosecution of doctors who act in good faith to save a mother's life.
Arkansas Right to Life and other groups say the vast majority of abortions are elective procedures, not medically necessary interventions during crises like Waldorf's. They argue that laws protecting fetal heartbeat reflect the state's recognition that unborn children have value and deserve protection under law. 'Every abortion ends a human life,' Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said previously.
Some conservative legal scholars contend that when physicians face genuine medical emergencies, existing exceptions provide sufficient protection for them to act. They point out that most state bans include language allowing intervention when a woman's life is at risk, arguing the issue lies in how doctors interpret and apply those provisions rather than the laws themselves.
What the Numbers Show
Arkansas' abortion ban, one of the strictest in the nation, took effect 30 days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. The law prohibits all abortions except when necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency.
Violations are classified as Class A misdemeanors for basic abortion care and Class C felonies for medication abortions, punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years imprisonment under certain circumstances. Arkansas is among 13 states with near-total bans that contain no exceptions for rape or incest.
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, maternal mortality rates in states with abortion bans were 62% higher than in states where abortion remained legal as of 2024. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that pregnancy-related deaths in the United States increased from 17.4 per 100,000 live births in 2018 to 32.9 per 100,000 in 2021.
The Bottom Line
Waldorf spent four days at Washington Regional Hospital waiting for her body to naturally expel the fetus or for the heartbeat to stop before doctors could intervene without violating state law. She told ProPublica she had never considered that abortion restrictions could affect women experiencing pregnancy loss rather than those seeking elective abortions.
The Arkansas Department of Health and Medical Board have not taken enforcement action against any physician under the state's abortion ban, according to public records requests. Governor Huckabee Sanders' office did not respond to requests for comment on specific cases or potential changes to how medical exceptions are defined.
Similar cases have emerged in other states with strict bans, prompting some legislatures to consider clarifying amendments about when doctors can act during pregnancy emergencies. Medical organizations continue calling for clearer guidance to prevent delays that could endanger patients.