Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka in Humboldt County illegally declined to perform the procedure, the lawsuit alleges.

California has sued a Humboldt County hospital after a patient said she was denied an emergency abortion earlier this year even as she feared for her life because of miscarriage risks.

California, one of the states that has maintained the strongest protections for reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned, on Monday sued Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Humboldt County Superior Court for refusing to perform an abortion for patient Anna Nusslock.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a lawsuit against Providence Health & Services, alleging that Eureka’s St. Joseph Hospital denied emergency abortion care to a woman who arrived in pain and severely bleeding after her water broke just 15 weeks into pregnancy.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday against a Humboldt County hospital accused of breaking state law by failing to provide emergency abortion services to a woman whose life was endangered by a failed pregnancy.

Providence St. Joseph Hospital refused to help the woman — despite finding her unborn children would not survive, and she likely would not either.

It is damning that here in California, where abortion care is a constitutional right, we have a hospital implementing a policy that’s reminiscent of heartbeat laws in extremist red states,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said.

Many Californians are proud of their state’s strong protections for abortion and reproductive rights—safeguards that have become even more important in the post–Roe v. Wade era. But a new lawsuit filed Monday by Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office highlights the risks that blue states face from a vital sector of the healthcare system,