Women’s HealthIn Crisis. denied breast cancer surgery due to BMI. It’s a feeling of helplessness that Cherise Basque will never forget: bleeding out in a hospital surrounded by health-care professionals, who she says wouldn’t intervene. “It was heartbreaking because it felt like a nightmare,” she said. “You’re in a crowded room with all these professionals crying, begging for help, and nobody’s helping you.” When the mother of five found out she was pregnant with her sixth child, she was told by her family doctor it wouldn’t be safe to carry to term because her previous pregnancies had complications with bleeding and required medical intervention. About a month ago, Basque was provided with a medical abortion — a total of five pills that she would be able to take at home. But when she began bleeding excessively, she travelled from her home in Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation to the emergency department at St. Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish, N.S. She recalls how she was bleeding through …