California's attorney general on Monday sued a Catholic hospital accused of refusing to provide an emergency abortion in February to a woman whose water broke prematurely, putting her at risk of potentially life-threatening infection and hemorrhage.

The patient, who spoke at a Monday news conference, says she was sent away with a bucket of towels to help with her bleeding.

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.

A California hospital has been sued by the attorney general on accusations that it denied a woman an emergency abortion.

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.