Under Texas’ Abortion Ban, Where a Pregnant Woman Lives Can Determine Her Risk of Developing Sepsis

POLITICO - by Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Andrea Suozzo
May 7, 2025

Nearly four years ago in Texas, the state’s new abortion law started getting in the way of basic miscarriage care: As women waited in hospitals cramping, fluid running down their legs, doctors told them they couldn’t empty their uterus to guard against deadly complications.

The state banned most abortions, even in pregnancies that were no longer viable; then, it added criminal penalties, threatening to imprison doctors for life and punish hospitals. The law had one exception, for a life-threatening emergency.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-rates-dallas-houston


A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs and Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments.

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.

by Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana
Nov. 25, 2024

Wrapping his wife in a blanket as she mourned the loss of her pregnancy at 11 weeks, Hope Ngumezi wondered why no obstetrician was coming to see her.

Over the course of six hours on June 11, 2023, Porsha Ngumezi had bled so much in the emergency department at Houston Methodist Sugar Land that she’d needed two transfusions. She was anxious to get home to her young sons, but, according to a nurse’s notes, she was still “passing large clots the size of grapefruit.”

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/porsha-ngumezi-miscarriage-death-texas-abortion-ban


USA – The New Faces of Abortion Rights

Democrats used to talk about abortion in abstract terms. Now Harris campaign volunteers are getting specific and changing the debate.

By Peter Slevin
August 9, 2024

The crowd that greeted Kamala Harris in a high-school gym outside Milwaukee last month was delighted to the point of delirium. People roared when she said that, as a former prosecutor, she knows “Donald Trump’s type.” They cheered again when she spoke up for affordable child care and an assault-weapons ban. But when she said, “We trust women to make decisions about their own body,” the response was so loud that it nearly drowned out the end of the sentence. She shouted above the din, “And not have their government tell them what to do.”

… To make that emotional connection with voters, Meghan Mohr has helped more than a dozen women to talk about their abortions on the campaign trail. The women, called abortion storytellers, have introduced Harris at events, and they are training others to give their own testimonies in the hope of highlighting the stakes in November.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-new-faces-of-abortion-rights


USA – When it comes to abortion rights, you should be scared

BY JESSICA MACKLER, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
02/15/24

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Voters would be wise to consider Maya Angelou’s famous quote as the 2024 election kicks into high gear and Donald Trump and Republicans try to posture on the issue of abortion.

Abortion is coming front and center in this election, and the anti-abortion movement is doing all it can to downplay the horrors of abortion bans and mischaracterize what the Republican Party has done and will do to restrict abortion.

Continued: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4468151-when-it-comes-to-abortion-rights-you-should-be-scared/


On Roe anniversary, Biden and Democrats point to November as crucial to restoring abortion

Biden must sell the actions he’s taken on abortion and contraception while convincing voters he and the party can do more if they hold the White House and take control of Congress.

Grace Panetta, Political reporter
January 22, 2024

White House officials and congressional Democrats are marking the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade with a renewed urgency — and framing the 2024 election as pivotal to restoring federal abortion protections.

A year and a half after the Supreme Court struck down Roe’s federal abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, over a dozen states have total abortion bans in effect, and more restrict it before fetal viability, leaving patients without access and providers in limbo. While Republican-led legislatures have passed such restrictions, in the same time frame voters have consistently voted to expand abortion rights and rebuked anti-abortion politicians in high-profile elections.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2024/01/roe-v-wade-anniversary-biden-abortion-election-2024/


Biden campaign puts reproductive rights front and center as it plans to tie Trump to abortion bans

By Arlette Saenz, CNN
Sun January 21, 2024

The Biden campaign will hit the airwaves in battleground states with its first abortion-focused ad of the year, featuring stark, emotional testimony from a woman personally affected by a state abortion ban who lays the blame directly on former President Donald Trump.

It comes as the campaign is launching a full-court press this week to put abortion rights front and center in the 2024 race, including with events headlined by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The push marks the campaign’s first organized effort to emphasize the issue, seeking to further galvanize voters around reproductive rights in the first presidential election after the Supreme Court ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion.

(View ad here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrtvE4bSwKY)
Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/21/politics/biden-campaign-abortion-rights-donald-trump/index.html


Democrats believe abortion will motivate voters in 2024. Will it be enough?

The Biden campaign is betting big on abortion rights as a major driver in this year's presidential election

By COLLEEN LONG and CHRIS MEGERIAN, Associated Press
January 21, 2024

WASHINGTON -- When Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said recently that he was “proud” to have a hand in overturning the abortion protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake took it as a political gift, thinking to herself, “Oh my God, we just won the election.”

It may not be that simple, but as the 2024 race heats up, President Joe Biden's campaign is betting big on abortion rights as a major driver for Democrats in the election. Republicans are still trying to figure out how to talk about the issue, if at all, and avoid a political backlash.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/democrats-abortion-motivate-voters-2024-106547428


State Democrats are leading on abortion policy. D.C. Democrats don’t want to get left behind.

Democrats in Washington want to show voters they're working on abortion rights ahead of the 2024 election, with most of the action in the states.

Jan. 18, 2024
By Julie Tsirkin and Kate Santaliz

WASHINGTON — After several successful state efforts to codify abortion access, Democrats are marking the 51st anniversary of the defunct Roe v. Wade ruling with an all-out reproductive freedom campaign — in an election year when abortion rights could once again help determine the balance of power in Washington.

Senate Democrats held a briefing on abortion access Wednesday focusing on the impact of state abortion bans. More than half of the Democratic caucus, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, heard from and questioned medical professionals and experts.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/state-democrats-are-leading-abortion-policy-dc-democrats-dont-want-get-rcna128932


Democrats condemn ‘cruel’ abortion bans ahead of 51st anniversary of Roe

‘Extreme’ Republican-backed bans have caused untold ‘suffering’ for women, senators say, and vow to restore federal abortion rights

Jessica Glenza
Wed 17 Jan 2024

Senate Democrats underscored their commitment to abortion rights in a press conference on Wednesday, ahead of the 51st anniversary of Roe v Wade. The now-overturned supreme court case provided American women with a constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

Experts at the briefing described Republican-backed abortion bans across the country as “cruel”, “extreme” and causing untold “suffering” for American women, thousands of whom are forced to travel across state lines for abortions or be forced to remain pregnant.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/17/democrats-restore-abortion-rights-roe-v-wade-2024-election


For one Texas doctor, abortion bans are personal and professional

August 21, 2023
Selena Simmons-Duffin
4-Minute Listen with Transcript

On a recent Friday night, as her husband made dinner at the family's home in Dallas and her toddlers ran around underfoot, Dr. Austin Dennard saw an email come in on her phone.

The judge who heard her testify last month in an Austin courtroom about Texas's abortion laws had reached a decision. Dennard is among 13 women who sued the state arguing that the current abortion bans are unclear when it comes to pregnancy complications. She is also an OB-GYN, and she's nearing the end of a healthy pregnancy – she was visibly pregnant while on the stand.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/21/1194482842/texas-pregnant-doctor-abortion-bans