Judge orders therapy records in Providence abortion care lawsuit

A judge ordered Jane Roe’s therapy records turned over to Providence St. Joseph Hospital’s lawyers on June 22 in Humboldt County.

Roe is one of two women and the state of California suing Providence over allegations that the Catholic hospital system denied emergency reproductive care because of religious policy. The plaintiffs allege Providence rules bar doctors from terminating pregnancies when a fetal heartbeat is present, even when patients need emergency treatment.

Roe’s lawsuit alleges she had pre-viable preterm premature rupture of membrane, or PPROM, and describes three separate denied-care episodes in 2021 and 2022. In one, she drove five and a half hours to San Francisco while in labor to get care. In another, she delivered a fetus in her obstetrician’s primary care office and nearly hemorrhaged to death. In a third, she delivered in a hospital toilet after 19 hours of agony. The complaint alleges those experiences left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and fear of hospitals.

The hearing this week did not turn on whether those events happened. It focused on whether Providence can review Roe’s therapy records to challenge her claim of emotional harm. Providence attorney Zoe Ginsberg argued that if Roe seeks damages for emotional distress, the hospital should be able to test those claims through the records. Roe’s attorney, Alexander Yusuf, argued the records should first be screened for relevance or filtered before being handed over.

The state’s parallel case, filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Sept. 30, 2024, in Humboldt County Superior Court, centers on Anna Nusslock. It alleges Providence violated California’s Emergency Services Law and other state laws when Nusslock, who was 15 weeks pregnant with twins, had her water break on Feb. 23, 2024. She was sent to Mad River Community Hospital, about 12 miles away, while actively hemorrhaging.

A separate suit filed April 1, 2025, by the National Women’s Law Center on behalf of Dr. Anna Nusslock alleges Providence’s religious policies violate the state’s Emergency Services Law and the Unruh Act. By August 2025, Judge Timothy Canning had already required the attorney general’s office to seek a preliminary injunction at an evidentiary hearing, and Providence had tried to undo an earlier agreement to follow California’s emergency-services law, arguing it conflicted with Catholic ethical directives.

As of Oct. 27, 2025, trial dates were set for Oct. 26, 2026 in the state case, Nov. 9, 2026 in Roe’s case and Dec. 7, 2026 in the Nusslock case, all in Humboldt County Superior Court.