Antiabortion states decide not to take the temperature
11 December 2024
“If you don't take a temperature, you can't find a fever.” from The House of God
Antiabortion laws kill and injure women and girls because they prevent or cause delays in their getting appropriate medical care.
A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban. Exclusive analysis finds the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased 56% from 2019 to 2022, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period. NBC News, 20Sep24
Last week, ProPublica reported on Porsha Ngumezi, the third known Texas woman to have died under that state’s abortion ban. In June 2023, Ngumezi lost so much blood from miscarrying at 11 weeks that she needed two transfusions. The hospital delayed providing a procedure called dilation and curettage to clear the uterus, with doctors instead giving her a drug to stop the bleeding. She died of hemorrhaging three hours later. More than a dozen doctors who reviewed a summary of her case told ProPublica that Ngumezi’s death could have been averted with a D&C. MSNBC, 3Dec24
Rest in Power: A Running List of the Preventable Deaths Caused by Abortion Bans, Ms. Magazine, 26Nov24
The latest nightmare experience comes from a woman who had to travel from Louisiana to Florida for miscarriage treatment.
These states are now simply not collecting the data that would reveal the problems that their antiabortion laws created. It appears that the Governors and Legislatures of these antiabortion states are more concerned about publicizing that women are dying than preventing the women from dying in the first place.
Georgia Republicans recently fired their entire maternal mortality committee, most likely to prevent reporters from uncovering more deaths caused by abortion bans.
Texas’ medical board announced it won’t examine data from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after the state’s total abortion ban went into effect.
This is more evidence that living in an antiabortion state (typically with Republican control of all branches of government) is hazardous to the health of women and girls.
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