A South Florida hospital has fired a labor and delivery nurse after a profanity-laced TikTok in which she said she hoped White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt would suffer a serious childbirth injury.
The nurse, Lexie Lawler, was terminated from Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital after posting a video that has since been deleted but continues to circulate on other platforms. In the clip, Lawler — identifying herself as a labor and delivery nurse — directed explicit remarks at Leavitt, 28, who is pregnant with her second child with husband Nicholas Riccio.
“As a labor and delivery nurse, it gives me great joy to wish Karoline Leavitt a fourth-degree tear,” Lawler said in the video. “I hope that you f—ing rip from bow to stern and never sh– normally again, you c—.”
The video spread quickly across social media, drawing intense backlash and prompting calls from President Donald Trump’s supporters for the hospital to fire her.
A spokesperson for Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital later confirmed Lawler’s termination in a statement to WPTV and CBS 12 on Friday, Jan. 23.
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“The comments made in a social media video by a nurse at one of our facilities do not reflect our values or the standards we expect of healthcare professionals,” the spokesperson said. “Following a prompt review, the individual is no longer employed by our health system.”
The spokesperson added: “While we respect the right to personal opinions, there is no place in healthcare for language or behavior that calls into question a caregiver’s ability to provide compassionate, unbiased care.”
Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer also confirmed Lawler’s termination, writing in a Jan. 22 Facebook post that he had contacted hospital leadership as soon as he learned of the video, according to CBS 12.
“These disgusting comments have no place in medicine or in our community,” Singer said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday, Jan. 24.
After Lawler was fired, a GoFundMe campaign was launched in her name seeking $14,000 for legal expenses. The fundraiser says the money would be used for “employment and civil rights counsel so Lexie can defend herself without being financially bullied into silence.”
“She is a liberal woman who used her personal social media — on her own time — to sharply criticize a public figure tied to a cruel, harmful administration,” the GoFundMe states. “Her words were blunt, angry and unapologetic. They were directed at power, not her workplace.”
“That speech was lawful. The retaliation was real,” the fundraiser continues. “After right-wing backlash and online targeting, her employer chose risk management over free expression — and terminated her instead of standing up for her rights.”
Lawler addressed the controversy again in a separate video posted Jan. 24, after her termination.
“So they just murdered a man in Minnesota,” she said, referring to the fatal Jan. 24 shooting in Minneapolis of ICU nurse Alex Pretti involving officers with the Department of Homeland Security. “They murdered a man in Minnesota, and you motherf—ers are coming after me because I used bad language. F— you. I’m on the right side of this. F— you.”
