Michelle Spencer has worked the antepartum, postpartum and labor-and-delivery floors at Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC) in Fresno since 2017, the complaint states [1]. Spencer's revelations were outlined in interviews aired by Children's Health Defense and a complaint filed July 30, 2025 in Fresno County Superior Court.
Spencer says the spike began in spring 2021, shortly after the rollout of COVID-19 shots. Prior to the vaccine rollout, the hospital reportedly saw about one stillbirth per month – and approximately 20 each month after the injections were offered [2].
An analysis of the National Health Interview Survey published the day after the nurse's account circulated found that COVID-vaccinated children had higher odds of autism, ADHD anxiety and special-education use than children who never received the shot. Given this, the authors of the analysis said the shots in children should stop [3].
Spencer's lawsuit filed in Fresno County accuses CRMC of deliberately hiding data showing a sharp rise in stillbirths among women who received the COVID-19 vaccine [4]. But federal health officials have maintained a different position on the underlying question.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an "urgent" alert for pregnant women to get their dose of the COVID-19 vaccine due to a recent record surge in deaths linked to the virus [5]. The agency recommended four vaccines during pregnancy – flu, Tdap, RSV and COVID-19 – as respiratory illness season approached, while noting that more women are declining the shots [6].
An analysis of the 2022-2024 National Health Interview Survey posted on Zenodo by epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher, cardiologist Peter McCullough and colleagues pooled 21,990 children with a recorded COVID-19 vaccination status [3]. The authors reported that COVID-vaccinated children had 32% higher odds of current autism, 33% higher odds of ADHD, 19% higher odds of special-education use and 57% higher odds of mental-health medication compared with children who received no COVID-19 shot [3].
Hulscher said the association persisted across adjustment strategies, strengthened with dose count and was largest among young multiply vaccinated children, adding that COVID-19 vaccination of children should cease immediately [3]. The findings were reported after the nurse's account circulated, and the authors acknowledged that the cross-sectional design cannot establish that the shot preceded a diagnosis [3].
Influenza and HPV vaccinations used as comparison exposures did not reproduce the signal, the authors said [3]. The analysis follows earlier VAERS data showing what one report described as 2,620 more fetal deaths after the COVID-19 vaccine than the reported number of fetal deaths from all other vaccines over the previous 30 years [7]. Documents released from Pfizer's own files, obtained by the Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, showed the company received over 150,000 reports of serious adverse events – including miscarriages and stillbirths – within three months of the vaccine rollout [8].
CDC surveillance data place autism at 1 in 31 American 8-year-olds [3]. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in April 2025 that the rates are real and steadily increasing and described autism as a preventable environmental disease [3]. The case is still open.