Kavitha Surana

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

In a state that had legislated its commitment to life, Graham spent her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers.

Our reporting has found that abortion bans generally don’t include exceptions that cover health concerns pregnant women with chronic conditions can face — or if they do, doctors aren’t using them.

The two women died during miscarriages. The state’s medical board has ruled that substandard care led to their deaths.

Her case shows how abortion bans have left hospital lawyers, not doctors, deciding who gets care — and how lawmakers and regulators have failed to change that.