Residents of 10 states will vote Tuesday on abortion-related ballot measures, half of which would overturn existing restrictions. In the weeks ahead of an election in which abortion access has been a central issue, a spate of reports have emerged about the life-threatening consequences of strict laws against it.
ProPublica reported last week that two Texas women died after they faced delays in getting miscarriage care because of the state’s abortion ban. ProPublica’s coverage in September linked two deaths to Georgia’s abortion ban.
In response to the most recent reports, a group of OB-GYNs told Texas officials and policymakers in an open letter that the two women — Josseli Barnica, 28, and Nevaeh Crain, 18, died — 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 does not allow Texas women to get the lifesaving 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 said stories about the consequences of abortion bans resonate with voters in any part of the country.
“Every time a voter has had the opportunity to protect abortion access via ballot measure, they have done it,” said Sara Tabatabaie, executive director of Vote Pro-Choice, a political advocacy group that supports abortion access.According to ProPublica, which said it had reviewed her hospital and autopsy records and interviewed her family, Barnica died of an infection in 2021 after doctors waited to end her miscarriage until there was no 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, roughly six weeks into pregnancy.
After the law was implemented, the number of Texas women who died during pregnancy or labor or shortly after childbirth skyrocketed, NBC News has reported.
After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, a more stringent ban took effect in Texas, prohibiting all abortions except to save a woman’s life or 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 deaths.
Christus Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth Hospital, which treated Crain, said it “believes that the care provided to this patient was at all times appropriate and compassionate.” HCA Healthcare, the hospital network where Barnica was treated, said that its “focus continues to be to provide the best possible care for our patients” and that physicians “use their extensive training and experience to exercise their independent medical judgment.”Amy O’Donnell, communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, said ProPublica’s reporting amounted to “misinformation.”
“Monthly data shows that doctors in Texas have consistently performed life-saving abortions in rare cases where a mother’s life is at risk, 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, encountered a rare complication in 2022 after she took abortion pills but did not receive timely medical care because of Georgia’s ban on abortions after a heartbeat is detected. The same year, Candi Miller, 41, did not see a doctor because of concerns about Georgia’s abortion law, according to ProPublica, and then died after she developed complications from managing her abortion at home. ProPublica said it had obtained reports from a state committee about each patient’s death, reviewed medical and autopsy records and spoken to their families. NBC News has not independently verified the details of those reports.
Jaylen Black, vice president of marketing communications for Planned Parenthood Southeast — which operates health centers in Georgia — said that the stories are sadly unsurprising and that additional deaths have most likely gone unreported.
“This is real life. Mothers have lost their lives. Their children now are 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-rights group, blamed the Georgia and Texas deaths on “substandard medical care and fearmongering.”
“As an OB-GYN currently practicing in Texas, the quality medical care I provide did not change after Texas enacted its pro-life law, nor has the law prevented me from caring for my patients in emergencies,” Skop said.
Of the abortion-related measures on state ballots, the most consequential are in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota, because they could reverse existing restrictions on abortion. Missouri and South Dakota’s laws are the strictest, banning nearly all abortions. Florida bans most abortions after around six weeks’ gestation, while Nebraska’s restrictions pertain to abortions after 12 weeks and Arizona’s after 15, each with limited exceptions.
“The folks in Florida have a real feat in front of them to have to receive 60% of the vote,” said Tabatabaie of Vote Pro-Choice, referring to the threshold of support the state’s abortion ballot measure needs to pass.
She added, though, that her organization is optimistic about many of the initiatives’ chances: “We’re feeling really good heading into Election Day.”
