A woman denounces that Badajoz's maternal hospital refused to practice a therapeutic abortion

They told her they were going to wait until the weekend because there was a chance she would go into labor naturally. But it didn't happen.

"The option they gave us was to terminate the pregnancy, but they referred us to a private clinic in Badajoz or Seville." The hospital would only intervene if the mother had medical complications or if the fetus died. As long as there was a fetal heartbeat, there would be no miscarriage.

The doctors informed her that the baby was still beating and that the hospital's gynecology service was not going to provide her with the hormonal treatment she was asking for to give birth to Blanca, hold her in her arms for as long as she could, and say goodbye. They argued conscientious objection.

They informed her that she was in danger of uterine infection or reproductive sequelae, among other possible adverse effects. For this reason, she was admitted and administered antibiotics for two weeks.

"What's the point of prolonging an agony like that, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to live and that I was in danger?", she wonders.

She raised the same question every day to the doctors, who repeated that as long as it had been beating, she would be in the hospital under control.

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“They offered me the chance to go to Seville, where they would practice a feticide on me, which consists of poking me in the belly until I reach my daughter and stopping her heart. And then she would return to Maternal and here they would take her out of it. But that was not an option for me." So he ended up accepting what he did not want, which was to go to the Guadiana Los Arcos clinic. It is the only one accredited in the entire region to perform voluntary interruptions of pregnancy up to week 14 in the region. "But it's not the same. Cases like ours must be separated from a voluntary election until week 14.

The SES refers to this clinic in Badajoz all cases similar to Natalia's that occur in Extremadura, as well as those in the province of Cáceres. That is, up to 22 weeks if they comply with the assumptions of the 2010 law. Extremadura is one of the five regions where public centers do not perform abortions in any case.

For pregnancies that exceed 22 weeks, whose termination must be done with a prior opinion from a clinical committee, Extremadura women must go to private clinics in Madrid or Seville.

Natalia made the decision just before reaching 22 weeks of pregnancy because she met the legal requirements. These are the existence of a serious risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman, serious anomalies in the fetus or the presence of fetal anomalies incompatible with life, or when an extremely serious and incurable disease is detected in the fetus.

But Natalia could not stay in the public hospital nor could she choose how to say goodbye to the girl. They intervened surgically and with general anesthesia.

That is why this woman from Badajoz claims her right to receive treatment in the public system at a very difficult time. «They close the doors and refer you to the private system, where they don't let you choose how to finish. We wanted a birth as natural as possible and it was instrumentalized. We have not chosen this situation and we wanted to make it more humane, “he adds. «It is not acceptable that you cannot have a dignified ending. The trauma is much greater and it is not fair. I am a sanitary (veterinarian) and our duty is to save suffering ».

Both Natalia Calderón and Víctor Sánchez, her husband, say they have found very solid support among all the Materno staff. They appreciate the treatment of midwives, assistants and warders. And also the doctors. They say that they understand conscientious objection, but that they cannot understand that the SES does not have a team prepared to deal with this type of cases throughout the region. Nor that "the right to conscientious objection of a health worker is above the right to health of a woman."

This week it has been learned that the Ministry of Equality wants to create a register of objecting doctors to guarantee the right to abortion in public hospitals and has opened the reform of the sexual health law for this purpose to public consultation.

Natalia and her husband, Víctor, are still in a state of shock more than a month after the problems in the pregnancy arose. They say they are going through a misunderstood duel because they insistently hear the phrase "you are young, other children will come." But they neither forget Blanca nor that they have prevented her from "saying goodbye" to her daughter.

They believe that the health system should offer psychological care to couples facing a situation of this type. They have gone to a private one since the beginning of the process because the SES does not offer it.

Natalia Calderón recounts her case because she wants to claim that no Extremadura woman ever sees herself in a situation like this again.