'So wrong': Texas data reveals soaring number of near-deaths after miscarriage

[tblue37]

Before states banned abortion, one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided: Doctors could offer a dilation and curettage procedure, which quickly empties the uterus and allows it to close, protecting against a life-threatening hemorrhage. But because the procedures, known as D&Cs, are also used to end pregnancies, they have gotten tangled up in state legislation that restricts abortion. Reports now abound of doctors hesitating to provide them and women who are bleeding heavily being discharged from emergency rooms without care, only to return in such dire condition that they need blood transfusions to survive. As ProPublica reported last year, one woman died of hemorrhage after 10 hours in a Houston hospital that didn’t perform the procedure.

Now, a new ProPublica data analysis adds empirical weight to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of miscarriage — which occurs in up to 30% of pregnancies — far more dangerous. It is based on hospital discharge data from Texas, the largest state to ban abortion, and captures emergency department visits from 2017 to 2023, the most recent year available.

After Texas made performing abortions a felony in August 2022, ProPublica found, the number of blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54%.

The number of emergency room visits for early miscarriage also rose, by 25%, compared with the three years before the COVID-19 pandemic — a sign that women who didn’t receive D&Cs initially may be returning to hospitals in worse condition, more than a dozen experts told ProPublica.

Snip

Much more: https://www.rawstory.com/a-striking-trend-after-texas-banned-abortion-more-women-nearly-bled-to/

[CrispyQ]

1. Since the state doesn't care about their lives, these women should sue for all their medical expenses & trauma suffered.

The woman who died but they kept on life support so they could harvest the fetus, her family should sue. WTF? The state forces all this extra debt & trauma on people with no repercussions at all? It's gotten to where I hate republicans. All of them. Every single one of them.

[mopinko]

2. not a bug. a feature.

EVERYONE knew this wd happen. considering that we r ruled by old farts, most who voted for this were alive pre-roe.

[walkingman]

3. It's far worse than the days pre-roe (from my memory) at least in those days

the Doctors were not intimidated for trying to save lives like they are these days here in Texas. I don't see how they attract OB/GYN doctors in this state?

[mopinko]

5. yeah. back in the day, they treated miscarriages

like the life threatening emergencies they r. and the abortion pill is a game changer.
public hospitals all used to have ‘abortion wards’. not many r resorting to coat hangers or back alley butchers these days, afaik. the 1 at cook co hospital was well known for the absolute stench. private hospitals, of course, didnt have them.
and if u were wealthy enough, u cd get a d&c from a doc who pretended u were miscarrying. even in catholic hospitals.

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[erronis]

6. Adding the link to the original ProPublica story.

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-miscarriage-blood-transfusions

Might as well give them the clicks, as well as supplying the whole article.

[tblue37]

7. Thanks.

[Ping Tung]

8. "Pro-life" isn't about babies. It's about punishing women who don't want to have babies.

[DFW]

9. People who are against abortion rights are NEVER

“Pro Life.”