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Kavitha Surana, ProPublica avatar

Kavitha Surana, ProPublica

Stories By Kavitha Surana, ProPublica

'So wrong': Texas data reveals soaring number of near-deaths after miscarriage

'So wrong': Texas data reveals soaring number of near-deaths after miscarriage

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Before states banned abortion, one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided: Doctors could offer a dilation and curettage procedure, which quickly empties the uterus and allows it to close, protecting against a life-threatening hemorrhage.

But because the procedures, known as D&Cs, are also used to end pregnancies, they have gotten tangled up in state legislation that restricts abortion. Reports now abound of doctors hesitating to provide them and women who are bleeding heavily being discharged from emergency rooms without care, only to return in such dire condition that they need blood transfusions to survive. As ProPublica reported last year, one woman died of hemorrhage after 10 hours in a Houston hospital that didn’t perform the procedure....

'See the pain in peoples’ eyes': Texas law risks lives based on patient's address

'See the pain in peoples’ eyes': Texas law risks lives based on patient's address

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Series: Life of the Mother:How Abortion Bans Lead to Preventable Deaths

More in this series

Reporting Highlights

  • New ProPublica Analysis: While the rate of dangerous infections spiked across Texas after it banned abortion in 2021, women in Houston fared far worse than those in Dallas.
  • Hospital Policies Diverge: Major Dallas hospitals empower doctors to provide abortions to patients with high-risk miscarriages. Most in Houston do not.
  • Mounting Evidence of Harm: Many Houston hospital leaders have not heeded their doctors’ calls to change their policies even after research indicated sepsis rates had tripled.

These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.

Nearly four years ago in Texas, the state’s new abortion law started getting in the way of basic miscarriage care: As women waited in hospitals cramping, fluid running down their legs, doctors told them they couldn’t empty their uterus to guard against deadly complications. ...

Texas banned abortion. Then sepsis rates soared.

Texas banned abortion. Then sepsis rates soared.

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.

Series: Life of the Mother:How Abortion Bans Lead to Preventable Deaths

More in this series

Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021, ProPublica found in a first-of-its-kind data analysis.

The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found. ...

Experts say this mother’s death was preventable after abortion ban delayed emergency care

Experts say this mother’s death was preventable after abortion ban delayed emergency care

In her final hours, Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat.

She’d taken abortion pills and encountered a rare complication; she had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body. She showed up at Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.

But just that summer, her state had made performing the procedure a felony, with few exceptions. Any doctor who violated the new Georgia law could be prosecuted and face up to a decade in prison. ...