The 100-Year Life Health Education and Government
Two pregnant women died in Texas because the state’s abortion ban meant they didn’t get life-saving medical care. ProPublica found that Nevaeh Crain, 18, and Josseli Barnica, 28, might have survived but for a state law that prohibits doctors from ending the heartbeat of a foetus.
Neither woman was actively seeking an abortion. Crain’s mother said both she and her teenage daughter thought abortion was morally wrong. But a combination of narrow legal exceptions for providing emergency treatment and fear of prosecution mean that pregnant women’s care is increasingly being delayed by doctors, with sometimes fatal repercussions.
Last month, ProPublica published the stories of two other women in Georgia, Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, whose deaths were also found to be preventable. Parallels have been drawn with the death of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland who was denied an abortion during a miscarriage.
Her death became central to the successful campaign to repeal the country’s abortion ban.
