My Abortion Was My Lifeline—Getting It Felt Like A Battle For Survival

Taren Holliman
April 17, 2025

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I knew I wanted an abortion. The immediate decision didn't come from fear or confusion; it came from clarity. I was too sick to work, constantly running out of my classes to throw up and juggling multiple jobs to stay afloat. Behind all of that was a mental health battle I'd been quietly fighting for years, and I didn't have access to the support I needed. There was no way I could carry this pregnancy to term—and, more importantly, I didn't want to. It was my body. It was my life, and I made my decision. It really should have been that simple. But almost immediately, I learned how hard it was to access abortion care.

This is America, after all — where racist, sexist policies are so deeply embedded into our institutions that they shape who gets access to essential care and who gets left behind. And for folks most impacted by systemic inequities—like disparities in income, health insurance and medical racism—no one is facing the brunt of these bans and restrictions like Black women.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/black-maternal-health-abortion-access

The CDC Hasn’t Asked States to Track Deaths Linked to Abortion Bans

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.

by Kavitha Surana, Robin Fields and Ziva Branstetter
Dec. 20, 2024

After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order tasking the federal government with assessing the “devastating implications for women’s health“ of new state abortion bans.

Experts were warning that these bans would interfere with critical medical care and lead to preventable deaths. And the states that passed the laws had little incentive to track their consequences.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-ban-deaths-cdc-maternal-health-care

A Woman Died After Being Told It Would Be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage at a Texas Hospital

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.

by Cassandra Jaramillo and Kavitha Surana
Oct. 30, 2024

Josseli Barnica grieved the news as she lay in a Houston hospital bed on Sept. 3, 2021: The sibling she’d dreamt of giving her daughter would not survive this pregnancy.

The fetus was on the verge of coming out, its head pressed against her dilated cervix; she was 17 weeks pregnant and a miscarriage was “in progress,” doctors noted in hospital records. At that point, they should have offered to speed up the delivery or empty her uterus to stave off a deadly infection, more than a dozen medical experts told ProPublica.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/josseli-barnica-death-miscarriage-texas-abortion-ban

The Anti-Abortion Movement Is Relentless. But So Is Jessica Valenti.

She once worried there wouldn’t be enough abortion news to cover. Now she’s just trying to keep up.

Ruth Murai
Oct 8, 2024

“Today’s newsletter will probably overwhelm you,” Jessica Valenti wrote in a note preceding the Wednesday, September 25, edition of Abortion, Every Day, the Substack where she breaks down the news on reproductive rights. The first order of business: an explanation of how a powerful anti-abortion group is directing an ad campaign that blames pro-choice advocates for the deaths of Candi Miller and Amber Nicole Thurman. Miller and Thurman were two Georgia women who, according to a ProPublica investigation, died because of the state abortion ban. “Honestly, how dare they,” Valenti wrote. “How dare they use these women’s names; how dare they use their pictures. It’s just beyond the pale.”

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/10/jessica-valenti-abortion-book-profile/

Why Six-Week Abortion Bans Make It Impossible for Many People to Get Care

Guttmacher Institute – Doris W. Chiu, Anna Bernstein, Alice F. Cartwright, Rachel K. Jones
Oct 7, 2024

All bans restricting abortion based on gestation are unjust; these arbitrary limits can make abortion inaccessible, leaving pregnant people’s reproductive autonomy dependent on their state of residence. But six-week abortion bans are especially pernicious because they prohibit abortion before many people know they are pregnant. Uncovering information on the timing of pregnancy recognition is vital to understanding the harmful effects of abortion bans based on gestation and who is most affected by them.

A new analysis of data from the Guttmacher Institute’s 2021–2022 Abortion Patient Survey finds that 37% of people accessing abortion discovered their pregnancy at six weeks or later. The survey collected information from a national sample of more than 6,500 people who obtained abortions in clinics across the United States between June 2021 and July 2022 (methodological details below).

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2024/10/why-six-week-abortion-bans-make-it-impossible-many-people-get-care

Resolution supporting abortion as a human right introduced in U.S. Congress

Ipas
Sept 27, 2024

A resolution condemning the criminalization of abortion in the United States and urging governments at all levels—federal, state and local—to uphold abortion as a human right was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on September 24 with tremendous support—96 original co-sponsors.

Representative Nikema Williams of Georgia introduced the measure, which also commends state and local governments’ leadership for introducing and passing similar resolutions in their states and counties—including Austin, Texas; Mount Ranier, Maryland; Montgomery County, Maryland; and the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in North Carolina.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/resolution-supporting-abortion-as-a-human-right-introduced-in-u-s-congress/

Afraid to Seek Care Amid Georgia’s Abortion Ban, She Stayed at Home and Died

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.

by Kavitha Surana
Sept. 18, 2024

Candi Miller’s health was so fragile, doctors warned having another baby could kill her.

“They said it was going to be more painful and her body may not be able to withstand it,” her sister, Turiya Tomlin-Randall, told ProPublica.

But when the mother of three realized she had unintentionally gotten pregnant in the fall of 2022, Georgia’s new abortion ban gave her no choice. Although it made exceptions for acute, life-threatening emergencies, it didn’t account for chronic conditions, even those known to present lethal risks later in pregnancy.

Continued; https://www.propublica.org/article/candi-miller-abortion-ban-death-georgia