A new study shows that a lack of abortion access is causing direct harm to pregnant people in Texas – in ways that had not been previously documented.
Rates of sepsis – a life-threatening reaction to bodily infections that causes organ damage and inflammation – rose by over 50% in Texan women who lost second-trimester pregnancies, a study conducted by nonprofit newsroom ProPublica showed.
Patients suffering miscarriages were more likely to contract sepsis if doctors delayed or refused to perform a procedure to evacuate the uterus, researchers noted. While this has long been considered routine care, the state’s strict abortion ban now effectively prevents doctors from performing the procedure until they can document that the situation is life-threatening.
In several cases, patients died as a result of deferring care, the numbers indicated.
“This is exactly what we predicted would happen, and exactly what we were afraid would happen,” Dr. Lorie Harper, a maternal and fetal medicine specialist in Austin, told ProPublica.
The organization reached this conclusion after crunching seven years’ worth of discharge data from hospitals throughout the Lonestar State. The numbers showed that, prior to the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, sepsis rates among hospitalized pregnant people in their second trimesters were steady. Once an abortion ban went into effect, though, sepsis rates skyrocketed.
Texas’ ban is one of the strictest in the nation. There, doctors are fully prohibited from performing, inducing or even attempting an abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. Practitioners who do so anyway could face both criminal and civil charges, not to mention professional consequences, in the form of having their licenses to practice revoked.
The effects of this ban have been significant, and dangerous. In addition to higher rates of sepsis – which can lead to complications such as blood clotting, brain damage and renal failure among sufferers – the maternal mortality rate in the state soared. The obstetrics and gynecology workforce in Texas is now dwindling; worse, infant deaths have increased there.
Medical professionals expressed dismay to ProPublica about the ways in which Texas’ stringent anti-abortion laws are keeping them from honoring their commitment to doing no harm.
“We have the ability to intervene before these patients get sick,” said Dr. Sarah Prager, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington. “This is evidence that we aren’t doing that.”
