With abortion on the ballot, there are reports of ban-related deaths

Residents of 10 states will vote on Tuesday abortion-related ballot measureshalf of which would overturn existing restrictions. In the weeks leading up to an election where access to abortion was a central issue, a number of reports emerged about the life-threatening consequences of strict anti-abortion laws.

ProPublica reported last week that two women from Texas they died after facing delays to receive care for miscarriage due to state abortion bans. ProPublica coverage in September linked two deaths with Georgia’s abortion ban.

In response to the latest reports, a group of obstetricians told Texas officials and policymakers in an open letter that the two women — Josseli Barnica, 28, and Nevaeh Crain, 18, died — he should still be alive.

“The nature of the strict abortion ban in Texas does not allow us as medical professionals to do our jobs,” they wrote. “The law is not allowing Texas women to get the care they need.”

Texas and Georgia are not among the 10 states with ballot measures that would protect or expand abortion rights. But reproductive rights advocates have told stories about the consequences of banning abortion resonates with voters in every part of the country.

“Every time a voter has had an opportunity to protect access to abortion by voting, they have,” said Sara Tabatabaie, executive director of Vote Pro-Choice, a political advocacy group that supports abortion access.

According to ProPublica, which said it reviewed her hospital and autopsy records and interviewed her family, Barnica died of an infection in 2021 after doctors waited to end the miscarriage until there was no longer a detectable heartbeat. Barnica died just days after a state law known as SB 8 took effect, effectively banning abortion care once a fetal heartbeat could be detected at about six weeks into pregnancy.

After the law was implemented, the number of Texas women who died during pregnancy or labor or shortly after giving birth skyrocketed, NBC News reported.

After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, a stricter ban went into effect in Texas, banning all abortions except to save a woman’s life or to prevent “substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” Crain’s death was linked to that ban because she, too, was unable to get timely care for a miscarriage, ProPublica reported, based on what it described as a review of 800 pages of her medical records. Crain developed an infection and became septic, according to ProPublica. NBC News has not independently verified the circumstances of Crain’s or Barnica’s death.

Christus Southeast Texas Hospital St. Elizabeth, who treated Crain, said she “believes the care given to this patient was always appropriate and compassionate.” HCA Healthcare, the hospital network where Barnica was treated, said its “focus continues to be on providing the best possible care to our patients” and that doctors “use their extensive training and experience to exercise their medical judgment independence”.

Amy O’Donnell, director of communications for the Texas Alliance for Life, said ProPublica’s reporting amounted to “misinformation.”

“Monthly data show that doctors in Texas have consistently performed life-saving abortions in rare cases where a mother’s life is in danger or there is a substantial risk of impairment of a major bodily function,” she. said in a statement.

As for the deaths in Georgia, ProPublica reported in September that Amber Thurman, 28, experienced a rare complication in 2022 after taking abortion pills but not receiving timely medical attention due to Georgia’s ban on abortions after the beatings were detected heart In the same year, Candi Miller, 41 years old, did not go to the doctor over concerns about Georgia’s abortion law, according to ProPublica, and then died after developing complications from managing the abortion at home. ProPublica said it obtained reports from a state board on each patient’s death, reviewed medical and autopsy records and spoke with their families. NBC News has not independently verified the details of these reports.

Jaylen Black, vice president of marketing communications for Planned Parenthood Southeast — which operates health centers in Georgia — said the stories are unfortunately not surprising and that additional deaths likely went unreported.

“This is real life. Mothers lost their lives. Their children are now growing up without their mothers because of our state’s abortion ban,” Black said.

However, Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, an anti-abortion group, blamed the deaths in Georgia and Texas on “inadequate medical care and the emergence of fear.”

“As an OB-GYN currently practicing in Texas, the quality medical care I provide has not changed since Texas passed the pro-life law, nor has the law prevented me from caring for my patients in emergency situations,” he said Skop.

“Yes on 3” signs outside the Kansas City office of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom on October 26. Arin Yoon / The Washington Post via Getty Images file

Among the abortion-related measures on state ballots, the most important are in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota because they could reverse existing restrictions on abortion.

The laws in Missouri and South Dakota are the strictest, banning almost all abortions. Florida bans most abortions after about six weeks of gestation, while Nebraska’s restrictions apply to abortions after 12 weeks and Arizona’s after 15 weeks, each with limited exceptions.

“The people of Florida have a real feat in front of them to have to get 60 percent of the vote,” said Vote Pro-Choice’s Tabatabaie, referring to the threshold of support the state abortion ballot measure must pass .

She added, however, that her organization is optimistic about many of the initiatives’ chances: “We’re feeling really good before Election Day.”