Women's and Reproductive Rights

Round Lake resident was twice denied care for her ectopic pregnancy and subsequently lost her fertility.

Today, a coalition of parents and Head Start providers filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s coordinated and unlawful efforts to dismantle the Head Start program, which would be catastrophic for the millions of people who rely on it.

We represent Harmonie Perrone, a 28 year-old suburban Chicago woman, who lost her fertility after she was twice denied treatment for a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy at a local hospital and an OB/GYN office. As a result of her lack of care, Ms. Perrone and her husband will now be forced to undergo expensive IVF treatment to build the family they have long planned. When Ms. Perrone became pregnant in 2025, she was attentive to her condition because of her history of two ectopic pregnancies—one of which ruptured, resulting in the loss of her right fallopian tube. After a few days, Ms. Perrone noticed some light vaginal bleeding, along with cramping and pain in her shoulder. These were exactly the symptoms Ms. Perrone had experienced during her prior ectopic pregnancies. She and her husband went to the emergency room at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital. Ms. Perrone told the ER staff about her history with ectopic pregnancy, and her test results indicated she was likely experiencing another ectopic pregnancy in her remaining fallopian tube. Rather than treat her, however, hospital staff scheduled a follow-up appointment the next day with an OB/GYN who they described as a “specialist.” The following morning, Ms. Perrone went to the OB/GYN’s office. The OB/GYN refused to terminate Ms. Perrone’s ectopic pregnancy by administering methotrexate, which Ms. Perrone knew from her own experience was standard treatment for this emergency medical condition. After desperately seeking treatment at two other religiously-affiliated health care facilities, Ms. Perrone and her husband finally found a hospital more than 30 minutes from their home that was willing to treat her. After the OB/GYN administered the injection of methotrexate, Ms. Perrone tearfully thanked her for saving her life. A few days later, Ms. Perrone felt a sudden burst of pain that left her unable to stand. She returned to the hospital that had treated her, and the OB/GYN explained her options. Ms. Perrone weighed the risks and benefits and decided her best course of action was a surgical procedure in which the physician would try to remove the ectopic pregnancy but leave her fallopian tube intact. During surgery, the OB/GYN discovered an ectopic pregnancy in her remaining fallopian tube. Because blood was already pooling in her pelvis—a sign of rupture—the physician was forced to remove Ms. Perrone’s fallopian tube, and with it her natural fertility. We are joined by lawyers for Amplify Legal, the litigation arm of Abortion in America, and Kaveny Sarmas Injury Lawyers in challenging the denial of treatment by Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital and its affiliated OB/GYN and medical office.

We represent Amy Hicks, a woman from downstate Illinois who was forced to undergo the non-consensual induction of her labor during the birth of her third child while she was in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois. This experience violated Ms. Hicks’ rights under the Illinois Reproductive Health Act, a law that explicitly allows every person in our state to make their own autonomous decisions about their reproductive health care, and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right of individuals to refuse unwanted medical care. Ms. Hicks was well along in her third trimester of pregnancy when she entered Logan Correctional Center in January of 2024. Almost from the moment she got to Logan, Ms. Hicks was told by one prison staffer and medical provider after another that she would be scheduled for an induction of her labor prior to her due date. Ms. Hicks repeatedly made clear to medical professionals and IDOC staff that she did not want to be induced and wished to go into labor naturally, just as she had done with her first two children. All of these people ignored her wishes and told her that she would be scheduled for an induction because this was the protocol for all pregnant inmates, regardless of what she wanted. In early February, two full weeks ahead of her due date, Ms. Hicks was taken (in shackles) to a hospital where the induction was performed. This experience of having her express wishes regarding her medical care disregarded was extremely upsetting and traumatizing for Ms. Hicks. We are asking a federal court to recognize that Ms. Hicks’ treatment while in custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections violated her rights under federal and state law and ensure that she is compensated for her suffering. We hope this case prompts changes so that the right of all incarcerated individuals to make their own decisions about how they will give birth will be respected going forward.