Texas banned abortion and made a point of not studying the healthcare outcomes. ProPublica sifted through data on millions of hospitalizations of pregnant women and concludes that the outcomes are dire: maternal sepsis rates during the second trimester have gone from 2.9% to 4.9% since the ban. The rate nearly doubled, to 6.9%, for hospitalizations without fetal death.
The analysis also identified at least 120 in-hospital deaths of pregnant or postpartum women in 2022 and 2023 — an increase of dozens of deaths from a comparable period before the COVID-19 pandemic. Neither the CDC nor states are investigating deaths or severe maternal complications related to abortion bans. And although the federal government and many states track severe complications in birth events using a federally established methodology, far less is known about complications that arise during a pregnancy loss. There is no federal methodology for doing this, so we consulted with experts to craft one.
The reality is probably worse, too, given the legal hot potato that a troubled pregnancy represents to the noble and virtuous healthcare providers of Texas: "We cannot see when hospitals turn patients away rather than admitting them," cautions ProPublica, which concludes its article by noting that the Federal government's instructions for analyzing data on complications in pregnancy have recently been deleted from hrsa.gov.
Previously:
• Texas lawmakers considering a ban on 850 books. Here's the full list.
• Texas ICE prosecutor: 'America is a White nation', 'I am a fascist'
• Texas man wastes $4k smashing a Taylor Swift 'themed' guitar
