Missouri is investigating Joplin hospital, not the patient as Hillary Clinton claimed
Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Tuesday tweeted inaccurate information about a Missouri health department investigation to her 31.7 million followers.
Clinton referenced Mylissa Farmer, a Missouri woman who was reportedly denied a life-saving abortion procedure at a Joplin hospital in August after her water broke early and put her health at risk. Farmer’s story was recently featured in an ad for Democratic Senate nominee Trudy Busch Valentine.
The state confirmed an investigation into the hospital Monday, but Clinton incorrectly said Tuesday that the investigation into Farmer.
“Mylissa Farmer had to travel to Illinois for a life-saving abortion after being denied one in her home of Missouri,” Clinton’s tweet said. “She talked about her ordeal in an ad for Democratic candidate for Senate @buschvalentine. Now the state is investigating her.”
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services told The Star Monday that the agency is investigating the Freeman Health System hospital where Farmer said she was denied the abortion. The agency is “absolutely not” investigating Farmer, the agency said Monday when specifically asked.
“This situation is being completely misrepresented,” Lisa Cox, a spokesperson for DHSS, said on Tuesday after Clinton’s tweet. “DHSS has absolutely no reason, nor do we have the authority, to investigate a patient in this manner. From our perspective, this is in no way a political issue. The insinuation that this investigation is anything other than ensuring patients get the medical care they are entitled to is absurd.”
Clinton’s tweet included a link to a story by Jezebel, a news and culture website. Jezebel initially reported that the state was investigating Farmer. The story has since been updated to clarify that the agency is investigating the hospital rather than Farmer.
After the initial version of the Jezebel story published, DHSS blasted the story on Twitter as “blatantly incorrect.” There is no time stamp or editor’s note to show when Jezebel updated its story to address the inaccuracy of the initial post.
DHSS told The Star and other media outlets Monday that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services — part of President Joe Biden’s administration — authorized the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act investigation of the hospital.
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a 1986 federal law, prohibits hospitals with emergency departments from refusing to treat people with an emergency medical condition. Missouri’s abortion ban includes an exception for medical emergencies.
CMS, in an email to The Star Tuesday, said it “does not comment on the volume or details of complaints to protect the integrity of investigations.” However, the federal agency did not deny authorizing the investigation or dispute DHSS’ account.
Farmer’s story and the state’s investigation have gained a close focus in the race for U.S. Senate between Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Busch Valentine.
The investigation was launched the same day that Schmitt’s campaign for U.S. Senate sent a cease-and-desist letter to a cable provider demanding the company remove a television ad featuring Farmer.
Clinton’s framing of the investigation follows allegations from House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat. In a series of records requests sent to state leaders last week, Quade said that the state was potentially investigating Farmer. She alleged that the investigation was politically motivated.
“Well, one reason for the request was to see if the department abused its authority by investigating a citizen for political purposes, which is plausible given the highly suspicious timing of the investigation being launched the same day Eric Schmitt’s Senate campaign sent threatening letters to local TV stations in an attempt to muzzle that same citizen,” Quade said in a statement Tuesday.
“We really hope the department hasn’t acted inappropriately. But while the department has issued denials to the press, it hasn’t yet acted on our records request.”
Quade, in her statement, said the issue goes far beyond who or what is being investigated. The problem is that doctors across Missouri are unsure what treatments are allowed under the state’s abortion ban and which will result in criminal charges, she said.
Farmer, in the Busch Valentine ad, told her story and placed the blame for the hospital’s failure to perform an abortion at the feet of Schmitt. The Missouri attorney general triggered the state’s near-total ban on abortion minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.
“My Missouri doctors weren’t allowed to give me the care that I needed all because of the mandate Eric Schmitt put into place,” Farmer says in the ad. “Eric Schmitt doesn’t care about women like me.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2022 at 12:18 PM.
