Reproductive care is health care in more ways than many people have thought through. The fact that anyone can consider the anti-abortion laws that exist and that are being planned as I write this to be "pro-life" is a sign that life has already become so devalued that it's loss isn't even seen or recognized when it comes to pregnancy and birth. The lives of women, both in terms of quantity and quality, are invisible, as are the lives of their families and other children and the children they may have had in the future. If the goal were to reduce the number of pregnancies that are ended intentionally or that end in accidental ways, the solutions would start in other parts of society- we would take meaningful steps to reduce rape and to support pregnant women so they could afford to have and raise a baby unexpectedly. We would be horrified at the extremely high infant mortality rate for black babies and other babies of color and take immediate steps to provide optimal care for those babies to bring the death rate down. We would ensure that pregnant women receive appropriate prenatal care and that infants received the care they needed in the early years. There are many, many things that we would do- but not only do we not do those things, we are allowing our health care system to degenerate such that more and more babies and pregnant women are losing their lives. Anti-abortion laws, as they stand, are in no way "pro life".
If You’re Pregnant, Here’s What To Know About the Medical Procedures That Could Save Your Life
Information about medical care for miscarriage, including D and C or D and E. Both of those procedures can be used for abortion as well so in states with abortion bans, they may not be offered when appropriate and needed. This video gives basic information about how to educate and protect yourself if you are or become pregnant.
How Do Abortion Pills Work? Answers to Frequently Asked Questions.
Abortion medication, sometimes referred to as the "abortion pill", is two pills taken together- mifepristone and misoprostol. "Mifepristone blocks a hormone called progesterone that is needed for a
pregnancy to continue. The FDA-approved regimen is to take 200
milligrams of mifepristone on the first day. Patients are directed to
take misoprostol within 24 to 48 hours of the mifepristone. The
misoprostol works to expel fetal tissue from the uterus."
The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Mortality
"Legal abortion has recently been suggested as an essential healthcare service. In this study, we consider whether abortion legalization over 1969-1973 improved women’s health, measured by maternal mortality. Our event-study results indicate that legal abortion substantially lowered non-white maternal mortality by 30-40%, with 113 non-white maternal deaths averted nationally in the first year abortion became legal. We also find that early state-level legalizations were crucial, and more influential than the Roe v. Wade decision itself. "
Dozens of pregnant women, some bleeding or in labor, are turned away from ERs despite federal law
"More than 100 pregnant women in medical distress who sought help from emergency rooms were turned away or negligently treated since 2022, an Associated Press analysis of federal hospital investigations found.
Two women — one in Florida and one in Texas — were left to miscarry in public restrooms. In Arkansas, a woman went into septic shock and her fetus died after an emergency room sent her home. At least four other women with ectopic pregnancies had trouble getting treatment, including one in California who needed a blood transfusion after she sat for nine hours in an emergency waiting room."
Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.
"Tasked with examining pregnancy-related deaths to improve maternal health, the experts, including 10 doctors, deemed hers “preventable” and said the hospital’s delay in performing the critical procedure had a “large” impact on her fatal outcome."
A Woman Died After Being Told It Would Be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage at a Texas Hospital
"Barnica is one of at least two Texas women who ProPublica found lost their lives after doctors delayed treating miscarriages, which fall into a gray area under the state’s strict abortion laws that prohibit doctors from ending the heartbeat of a fetus.
Neither had wanted an abortion, but that didn’t matter. Though proponents insist that the laws protect both the life of the fetus and the person carrying it, in practice, doctors have hesitated to provide care under threat of prosecution, prison time and professional ruin.
ProPublica is telling these women’s stories this week, starting with Barnica’s. Her death was “preventable,” according to more than a dozen medical experts who reviewed a summary of her hospital and autopsy records at ProPublica’s request; they called her case “horrific,” “astounding” and “egregious.”
A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms
An 18-year-old woman died from sepsis after visiting emergency rooms 3 times, when she developed symptoms of sickness and miscarriage. The hospitals diagnosed her with strep throat, and later a UTI as well and sent her home, despite clear signs indicating a life-threatening infection. Once she returned for the third time her emergency care was delayed out of concern over the fetal heartbeat. It's not possible to say for sure if her death could have been avoided, but a lot more could have been done to try. In Texas, officials have made a point to tell doctors that their abortion ban takes precedence over a federal law that requires emergency rooms to treat women and stabilize them when they have life-threatening complications of pregnancy.
A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs and Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments.
"The 35-year-old’s death was preventable, according to more than a dozen doctors who reviewed a detailed summary of her case for ProPublica. Some said it raises serious questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to diverge from the standard of care and reach for less-effective options that could expose their patients to more risks. Doctors and patients described similar decisions they’ve witnessed across the state.
It was clear Porsha needed an emergency D&C, the medical experts said. She was hemorrhaging and the doctors knew she had a blood-clotting disorder, which put her at greater danger of excessive and prolonged bleeding. “Misoprostol at 11 weeks is not going to work fast enough,” said Dr. Amber Truehart, an OB-GYN at the University of New Mexico Center for Reproductive Health. “The patient will continue to bleed and have a higher risk of going into hemorrhagic shock.” The medical examiner found the cause of death to be hemorrhage."
"But because D&Cs are also used to end pregnancies, the procedure has become tangled up in state legislation that restricts abortions. In Texas, any doctor who violates the strict law risks up to 99 years in prison. Porsha’s is the fifth case ProPublica has reported in which women died after they did not receive a D&C or its second-trimester equivalent, a dilation and evacuation; three of those deaths were in Texas. (E)ven in cases like Porsha’s where there isn’t a fetal heartbeat or the circumstances should fall under an exception in the law. Some doctors are transferring those patients to other hospitals, which delays their care, or they’re defaulting to treatments that aren’t the medical standard. Texas outlaws abortion from the moment of fertilization; a record showing there is no cardiac activity isn’t enough to give physicians cover to intervene, experts said."
"Staff are familiar with misoprostol because it’s used for labor, and it only requires a doctor and a nurse to administer it. To do a procedure, on the other hand, a doctor would need to find an operating room, an anesthesiologist and a nursing team. “You have to convince everyone that it is legal and won’t put them at risk,” said Goulding. “Many people may be afraid and misinformed and refuse to participate — even if it’s for a miscarriage. (F)or example, legislators added an update to the ban for patients diagnosed with previable premature rupture of membranes, in which a patient’s water breaks before a fetus can survive. Doctors can still face prosecution for providing abortions in those cases, but they are offered the chance to justify themselves with what’s called an “affirmative defense,” not unlike a murder suspect arguing self defense. This modest change has not stopped some doctors from transferring those patients instead of treating them."
Afraid to Seek Care Amid Georgia’s Abortion Ban, She Stayed at Home and Died
Candi Miller had several chronic health conditions that made pregnancy dangerous and potentially life-threatening for her, but she became pregnant unintentionally soon after Georgia passed a ban on abortion. She ordered abortion pills through the mail, feeling that she needed to handle an abortion on her own, and didn't go to the hospital when she experienced complications following taking the pills out of fear. She died, leaving behind three children who now have no mother. Her death was preventable.
"ProPublica’s new reporting
makes clear, for the first time, that in the wake of bans, women are
losing their lives in ways that experts have deemed preventable. It also underscores the
reality that abortion bans have not actually led to a decrease in
abortions. But for people like Miller, they have increased the degree of
difficulty and risk." Women with chronic conditions that make pregnancy more dangerous are not helped by the narrow exceptions written into law, and often need to travel out-of-state to get the supportive care they need even to continue the pregnancy. There is so much confusion around the new laws that women are often not showing up for care until they are already experiencing serious complications. This system has made pregnancy more dangerous for many women.
Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.
Amber Nicole Thurman died of treatable complications of abortion medication in Georgia after the state's abortion ban went into effect. She had a rare complication in which her body didn't fully expel the fetal tissue, which would normally be treated by a common, safe intervention called a D and C. This procedure was essentially outlawed in Georgia, so she ended up dying of sepsis, an deadly infection that resulted from the lack of treatment that she received. Her death is "the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed “preventable,” is coming to public light."
Referenced in the article- The Impact of Legal Abortion on Maternal Mortality
"Our event-study results indicate that legal abortion substantially lowered non-white maternal mortality by 30-40%, with 113 non-white maternal deaths averted nationally in the first year abortion became legal. We also find that early state-level legalizations were crucial, and more influential than the Roe v. Wade decision itself. "
Texas women denied abortions for ectopic pregnancies file federal complaints against hospitals
"The hospital's intervention was too late, her attorneys say. Her ectopic pregnancy ruptured days later, leaving her bleeding heavily and in blinding pain. She was transferred from a facility in Burnet County to Ascension Seton, where she was told she was "bleeding out," according to the complaint. To save her life, doctors removed her right fallopian tube, leaving her with lower chances of having a successful pregnancy in the future."
“These women are proof that exceptions do not make abortion bans less dangerous, even when they are exceedingly clear," Beth Brinkmann, senior director of U.S. litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in Monday's news release. “It’s impossible to have the best interest of your patient in mind when you’re staring down a life sentence. Texas officials have put doctors in an impossible situation. Numerous Texas OB-GYNs and medical associations have said that the severe repercussions, combined with the state's abortion ban's complicated wording, leave doctors hesitant to administer treatment."
"Texas Alliance for Life in monthly news releases has highlighted that one to 10 "medical-necessity" abortions have been recorded in Texas each month since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to an abortion established in Roe v. Wade. More than 50,000 took place each year between 2008 and 2020."
Doctors Warned Her Pregnancy Could Kill Her. Then Tennessee Outlawed Abortion.
Mayron Michelle Hollis became pregnant unexpectedly soon after giving birth to a daughter, but despite the pregnancy posing a very serious risk to her health and life, Tennessee passed an abortion ban before she could end the pregnancy. Her doctor tried to put together a team to perform the necessary procedure but was unable to gather the needed participants because they were afraid of the legal consequences, so she was left to navigate a terrifying situation with little help- further traumatizing her, jeopardizing her health, her family, her sanity, and her life, and with additional barriers put up by the state to make her already extremely difficult situation orders of magnitude worse. Amazingly she and her baby survived- despite the medical system, not because of it. This article is very well done and worth reading.
Her miscarriage left her bleeding profusely. An Ohio ER sent her home to wait
Christina Zielke had a confirmed miscarriage but was left to wait for the tissue to pass on it's own, which didn't happen for weeks. When it did, she lost a large amount of blood but was not treated and instead sent home due to Ohio's trigger law- meaning that abortion became illegal the same day that Roe v Wadew was overturned. Many anti-abortion advocates do not understand that miscarriage, a common event in pregnancy, is treated with the same procedures that are also used in abortion. This means that when abortion is outlawed, miscarriage becomes much harder to get treatment for and becomes a dangerous event when it doesn't need to be, placing the health and lives of large numbers of women in danger- even women who had no intention of having an abortion, even women whose pregnancies are not viable or are ectopic (which must always be terminated). These laws are having a large amount of unintended consequences that their authors don't take accountability for, at least partially because they lack a basic understanding of the biology and medicine around pregnancy.
North Texas woman says her baby fell on a Dallas freestanding ER floor after she gave birth
In a state with anti-abortion (so-called "pro life") laws, it is horrifyingly ironic that this baby nearly lost her life due to such utter disregard for human life. The US has a profoundly disturbing history of such incompetent treatment and such complete lack of basic care for black women and their babies that the infant and maternal death rate is many times higher than it is for white mothers and babies. This just highlights the hollowness of the so-called "pro-life" movement who are nowhere to be seen when it comes to these excess deaths. In addition, this level of care is the "new normal" in America as we allow private equity and profit-based health care to destroy the health care system and leave only the most minimal skeletal remains, all in the name of short-term value extraction.
The CDC Hasn’t Asked States to Track Deaths Linked to Abortion Bans
"(T)the Biden administration has missed a critical opportunity to illuminate
how abortion bans are interfering with maternal health care, leading to
deaths and irreversible injuries: The CDC has not pushed state
committees that review maternal deaths to examine the role these new
laws have played."
If You’re Pregnant, Here’s What You Should Know About the Medical Procedures That Could Save Your Life
"Women experiencing pregnancy loss in states with abortion bans told us they wished they had known what to expect and how to advocate for themselves. We created this guide for anyone who finds themselves in the same position."
Are Abortion Bans Across America Causing Deaths? The States That Passed Them Are Doing Little to Find Out.
"The same political leaders who enacted abortion bans oversee the state committees that review maternal deaths. These committees haven’t tracked the laws’ impacts, and most haven’t finished examining cases from the year the bans went into effect. "
We Don't Do That Here (New York Times)
Five Woman Sue Texas Over the State's Abortion Ban (New York Times)
Maternal morbidity and fetal outcomes among pregnant women at 22 weeks’ gestation or less with
complications in 2 Texas hospitals after legislation on abortion
"n 2 Texas hospitals, state-mandated expectant management of obstetrical complications in the periviable period was associated with significant maternal morbidity (Figure). Consistent with reports
evaluating outcomes in women requesting expectant management, most of the pregnant patients at <22 weeks presenting with medical indications for delivery experienced serious morbidity, and fetal outcomes were poor. Expectant management resulted in 57% of patients having a serious maternal morbidity compared with 33% who elected immediate pregnancy interruption under similar clinical circumstances reported in states without such legislation."
