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    UngreyMyHeartAnna Merlan
    5/05/16 5:58pm

    An 8-week-old fetus? At that stage it’s the size of a marble and barely recognizable as human. How did they even know what it was?

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      UmeboshayyUngreyMyHeart
      5/05/16 6:03pm

      Yea was wondering that as well but think maybe they mean an infant that was dead for 8 weeks? Like it was born 8 weeks ago?

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      AnatayaUngreyMyHeart
      5/05/16 6:06pm

      Yeah that doesn’t make sense. Maybe she miscarried 8 weeks previous to it being found? Maybe they’re lying? Who knows.

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    littlemorisa9Anna Merlan
    5/05/16 6:03pm

    At eight weeks, it is called an embryo and about the size of a blueberry. WTF are cops doing telling the news/world about a blueberry-sized miscarried embryo? Shame on the cops.

    In my experience, hospitals do absolutely nothing when you have means and you’re miscarrying before 10 weeks. I can’t imagine what it would like to be poor and be turned away. My doctor wouldn’t even see me until the pregnancy was 12 weeks along.

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      susaneclittlemorisa9
      5/05/16 6:20pm

      That’s my experience as well (fuck you, Kaiser system). But when I miscarried and went in without a “sample” all of my paperwork had to say that I could still have a viable pregnancy. I’ve worked in women’s health and have a health science degree but my heart breaks for women who can’t advocate for themselves or who hold out hope under those circumstances. Her story is terrible and unfortunate.

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      Kris-the-Needlessly-Defiantlittlemorisa9
      5/05/16 6:27pm

      Even later they don’t do much...I had a missed miscarriage at 14 weeks (the fetus died but stayed in the womb). I had horrible contractions for a week along with a fever and my dr refused to see me, his receptionist told me to: “suck it up, it’ll come out eventually”. Finally my husband couldn’t take my suffering any more and took me to the ER. The very kind triage nurse asked me why an earth I hadn’t come in sooner. While I realize miscarriages are really common, there’s a shocking lack of compassion by medical professionals sometimes.

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    Cereal MonogamistAnna Merlan
    5/05/16 6:26pm

    While my heart goes out to this woman - she’s clearly dealing with a lot, there’s really not much a hospital could do for her if she arrived having already miscarried, regardless of finances. Any remains would likely be treated as medical waste at that point; even if they referred her to a funeral home, as is usually done with later term losses, I’m not sure there’s much they could do either, quite honestly - as other commenters have rightly pointed out, we’re literally talking about something the size of a blueberry.

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      WhiskeyprayerCereal Monogamist
      5/05/16 7:24pm


      One would hope that she could have been turned over to a creamatorium who could have generated a thimble or so of ash which she could have scattered someplace in a nice park or somewhere special to her. It would have been largely symbolic, but harmless enough and perhaps it would have given her some peace.

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      accordingtoWhiskeyprayer
      5/05/16 7:57pm

      There wouldn’t even be any ash, unfortunately. The ash comes from bones, and there’s barely enough bone in a full term infant to generate much ash.

      It sounds like she sought help to dispose of the remains in a legal, respectful manner, and found none.

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    DeanaCalAnna Merlan
    5/05/16 6:01pm

    This is horrendous, all the way around. However, is there any evidence besides her own story that she was turned away by two hospitals and the Angels Away program? I thought there were some kind of laws about turning away people in emergency rooms, and having been to quite a few myself, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this. I guess I could see an epic fuckup or bad employee at one place, but two?

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      WhiskeyprayerDeanaCal
      5/05/16 6:04pm


      She wasn’t having a medical emergency.

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      Setzer777DeanaCal
      5/05/16 6:05pm

      I’m pretty sure those laws only apply to critical life-threatening conditions (and even then they only have to stabilize the person).

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    Hoyo AfrikaAnna Merlan
    5/05/16 5:58pm

    The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said that in the event the fetus is buried, Rivera will likely not be permitted leave to attend the funeral.

    GIF
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      Anita-darlingHoyo Afrika
      5/05/16 6:01pm

      What the hell is wrong with people? God, our laws and interpretations of those laws are fucked up.

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      rslwnHoyo Afrika
      5/05/16 6:09pm

      this this this. This poor woman.

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    AnnaAnna Merlan
    5/05/16 6:35pm

    Uh, maybe this is just a totally crazy question, but why would the hospitals be allowed to turn her away?

    (No, I’m not Candian – I’m American, and I am crazy confused.)

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      MalcireAnna
      5/05/16 7:26pm

      If she wasn’t deemed to be in life threatening condition they don’t have to treat her. I would assume a miscarriage would count but someone up above said it wouldn’t guarantee it.

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      AnnaMalcire
      5/05/16 8:19pm

      Wow. I guess part of it is just the shock that they’d have the nerve to turn away a woman who’s having a miscarriage, which is an awkward, bloody, messy, unsanitary process, and above all, likely very painful and stressful. I mean, unless there was some kind of public health crisis at the moment and they were overcrowded, it just seems cruel to turn her away. Who does that?

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    liu.lingling.88Anna Merlan
    5/05/16 6:07pm

    I love that she wanted to keep the pregnancy and even wanted to bury the child but was STILL unable to do so. Even though that’s what some law makers are trying to mandate now.

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      HarvestMoonliu.lingling.88
      5/06/16 5:48am

      Bury an early miscarriage?

      No. It’s not a child.

      It's happened to me and many others and usually ends up flushed.

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      liu.lingling.88HarvestMoon
      5/06/16 8:39am

      Dude yeah! It was on Jezebel a while back I believe. Where they were trying to make women give a funeral to their fetuses.

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    Hoyo AfrikaAnna Merlan
    5/05/16 5:55pm

    but didn’t impose any additional charges on her.

    So it's a crime she wasn't able to afford proper health care or disposal of the fetus? Being poor (and a woman) in America sucks ass.

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      sunshineHoyo Afrika
      5/05/16 5:59pm

      It’s more like it’s a crime to be poor and a woman in America.

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      foolyooHoyo Afrika
      5/05/16 6:02pm

      I think she was being held on drug charges, unrelated to the fetus. Sadly, if she is homeless, this may be beneficial for medical care and a hot meal.

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    VoteyMcVotefaceThePartyVoteDriverAnna Merlan
    5/05/16 6:04pm

    The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said that in the event the fetus is buried, Rivera will likely not be permitted leave to attend the funeral.

    Good old right wing compassionate conservatism here on display folks. Sad!

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      HappyHighwaymanAnna Merlan
      5/05/16 5:57pm

      Hooray, let’s punish women for being women.TRUMP 2016

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        Caitie2187HappyHighwayman
        5/05/16 6:19pm

        They are punishing her for drug charges, not anything related to the fetus.

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        HappyHighwaymanCaitie2187
        5/05/16 6:40pm

        The hospital that denied her?

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