Kavitha Surana

Using seven years of hospital discharge data, we found that the number of blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54% since Texas banned abortion.

A new ProPublica data analysis adds to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of first-trimester miscarriage far more dangerous.

The bill comes after ProPublica’s reporting on the deaths of three Texas women. It specifies that doctors don’t need to wait until an emergency is “imminent” to terminate pregnancies but leaves in steep penalties for those who violate the law.

The Biden administration hasn’t delivered on its goals of measuring the public health impact of abortion bans. Experts say it’s a missed opportunity to study how the laws may lead to deaths and long-term injuries.

Doctors described hospital lawyers who “refused to meet” with them for months, were hard to reach during “life or death” situations and offered little help beyond “regurgitating” the law, according to a Senate Finance Committee report.

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.

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.

Thirty-five-year-old Porsha Ngumezi’s case raises questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to avoid standard care even in straightforward miscarriages.

The new legislation, prompted by ProPublica’s reporting, comes after 111 Texas doctors signed a public letter urging that the ban be changed because it “does not allow us as medical professionals to do our jobs.”

Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She’d told her husband that the medical team said it couldn’t act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.

Candi Miller’s family said she didn't visit a doctor “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions.” Maternal health experts deemed her death preventable and blamed Georgia’s abortion ban.

At least two women in Georgia died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, ProPublica has found. This is one of their stories.

In Tennessee and other states that banned abortion, doctors are left to debate high-risk pregnancy cases with their colleagues. ProPublica takes an exclusive look inside those discussions.

ProPublica reviewed 12 of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. Few changed in 2023, as state lawmakers caved to pressure from anti-abortion groups opposing exceptions for rape, incest and health risks.

It’s clear that abortion bans can make pregnancy more dangerous, but experts say it may take years for maternal mortality data to reveal the toll.

Doctors told her she might die but she couldn’t have an abortion under state law until she got sicker, documents show. The Biden administration says failing to act violates a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care.

With an amendment to Tennessee’s abortion ban on the table, a powerful anti-abortion group pushes Republican lawmakers to take the narrowest interpretation on when a doctor can legally intervene in high-risk cases.

Anti-abortion groups helped write and pass laws that kicked in to ban abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned. The groups see Tennessee’s ban as the country’s strongest — and they want to keep it that way, according to audio reviewed by ProPublica.

An Australian tourist alleged that a border official asked about her abortion history. The ACLU and other advocates are more concerned agents aren’t meeting the health needs of pregnant immigrants and infants in border facilities.

The state police just implemented a policy banning some of the most egregious behavior exposed in an investigation last year by ProPublica and The Philadelphia Inquirer, which raised questions of racial profiling and unlawful arrest.