Investigation links Georgia’s abortion ban to preventable deaths of 2 women

We’re learning more about the effects of abortion restrictions enacted after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. ProPublica found at least two women in Georgia who died after being unable to get either a legal abortion or timely medical care. Committees examining pregnancy-related deaths concluded that both were preventable. John Yang discussed more with ProPublica’s Kavitha Surana.
Amna Nawaz:
This fall, reproductive health care access is on the ballot in nearly a dozen states.
Meanwhile, we’re now learning more about the effects of abortion restrictions enacted at the state level after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade two years ago.
John Yang reports.
John Yang:
Amna, ProPublica found at least two women in Georgia who died after being unable to get either a legal abortion or timely medical care.
Official state committees examining pregnancy-related deaths concluded that both were preventable. Georgia law says a physician can go to prison for performing an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The law does have an exception to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, but physicians say there’s no guidance on how to interpret that.
Kavitha Surana is the ProPublica journalist who reported this story.
Kavitha, you illustrated two aspects of this Georgia law, the first case involving Amber Nicole Thurman. She tried to get an abortion out of state, missed her appointment for a traffic jam, of all things, and so was prescribed a medication abortion. What happened to her?
Kavitha Surana, ProPublica:
Right.
And it’s important to make clear that abortion medication, major medical organizations and studies have consistently found that they are safe and effective when taken appropriately. But they can cause complications.
And if complications happen, patients should go to the hospital right away and expect to receive a D&C procedure. That’s the same kind of procedure that’s used for both abortions and miscarriage care to remove any fetal tissue that remains.
So what we know is that Amber had complications. She went to the hospital. And doctors waited 20 hours to provide a D&C. They talked about it multiple times. They monitored her as her blood pressure fell, her organs began failing. And, ultimately, when they did intervene, it was too late to save her life.
The Maternal Mortality Review Committee reviewed this case and they agreed that it was preventable, and they said that the largest impact was the delay in receiving a D&C procedure. They said that there was a good chance, if doctors had done it sooner, that her life could have been saved.
John Yang:
Why did the doctors delay?
Kavitha Surana:
We don’t know what was going through the doctors’ heads and the hospitals did not respond to requests for comment.
A lot of lawmakers that have passed these abortion bans, and not just Georgia’s, have promised that they have exceptions for the life of the mother or medical emergencies, but they’re written in ways that experts say are confusing and not rooted in science. They threaten prison time if a prosecutor decides that they’re not followed correctly.
And doctors have told me that this type of threat, it can really change the dynamics of how they interact with patients. In fact, we have reported a lot of in-depth stories about this kind of delay in care where doctors have explained exactly how it changed the way that they were treating patients.
Even if they do feel like they can go ahead, sometimes, they also have to convince lawyers and nurses and other colleagues to participate who have the right in some states like Georgia not to participate in any abortion-related care.
John Yang:
The second case involved a woman named Candi Miller. She avoided doctors. She navigated a medication abortion her own. Do we know why she didn’t go to a doctor?
Kavitha Surana:
Well, one of the first things that’s important to know about this case is that Candi Miller, who was a 41-year-old mother of three, had a lot of medical complications. She had diabetes, lupus, and hypertension, and her doctors actually told her that it would be dangerous for her to go through another pregnancy and may even threaten her life.
And these abortion exceptions do not have any kind of exception that addresses the situation. They’re really limited to emergencies, not situations where a patient’s condition may become an emergency later. So, because abortion was outlawed, her family says she ordered pills online from overseas and took them at home.
Again, these pills, they can cause complications, and patients should go to the hospital if that happens. From what we know, she did experience some pain. The abortion didn’t complete, according to an autopsy. And her family’s understanding was that abortion was outlawed and people could go to jail for having an abortion.
That’s not clear from Georgia law. Courts have ruled that women cannot be prosecuted for their own abortion, but there’s been a lot of confusion around this. And candy was found with fentanyl and other medicines in her system. It’s not clear why she took them or where she got them.
John Yang:
This law was hailed by Republican lawmakers, by the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp. He said he was overjoyed when it took effect.
You reached out to Governor Kemp’s office with your reporting, presented your reporting, and what did they say to you?
Kavitha Surana:
Yes, many of the Republicans who passed these laws have consistently waved off these kinds of concerns.
When we reached out to Governor Kemp’s office to tell them about our reporting, they called this kind of reporting fearmongering. The thing is, it’s not news or surprise that abortion bans are unclear or can cause confusion or are dangerous for women’s health. Ever since they were written doctors, major medical organizations, patients who’ve had these experiences themselves have been speaking up about warning that these bans are not clear and could lead to women dying unnecessarily.
And in some states, even, there’s been efforts to propose small changes, the kind of changes doctors say would help them avoid situations of delayed care. But over and over again, we have seen major anti-abortion organizations oppose these changes.
John Yang:
Both these cases happened in 2022, shortly after the court overturned Roe v. Wade. Why is it just now that we’re learning about the conclusions of the review boards?
Kavitha Surana:
That’s why ProPublica is continuing to report on this topic. The fact that these cases happened in 2022, it’s just a sign of how hard they are to track down. Often, families aren’t even aware of all the circumstances.
Now, every state does have a committee that reviews maternal deaths and they look at the root causes and make some findings about them. But those committees are about two years behind and just now starting to look at cases that happened after Roe was overturned and these abortion bans came into effect.
So we have a lot of reason to believe that there are more women whose stories have been impacted by the inability to get a legal abortion in their state. And we’re continuing to work on bringing them to light.
John Yang:
Kavitha Surana of ProPublica, thank you very much.
Kavitha Surana:
Thanks for your time.