In the preceding period Election dayyet another report proved the devastating toll of abortion bans on American women. Last week, a story published by ProPublica detailed the final moments of the life of Josseli Barnica, 28, a Texas mother who died in 2021, according to doctors. delayed treating the miscarriage for 40 hours.

According to the report, doctors told Barnica and her husband to wait until her 17-week-old fetus had no heartbeat before intervening, saying “it would be a crime to abort her,” even though the abortion spontaneously, in the hospital. records, it was already “in progress”. Three days after Barnica gave birth, she died of an infection, which is becoming more common as birth rates preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), maternal sepsisand infant mortality increased behind him Roe v. Wadehis overthrow.

of Texas six-week abortion banprecedes his downfall roe by almost a year and while nonprofits and mutual aid organizations like it Buckle bunnies works to facilitate access to abortion, contraception and reproductive health care throughout the state birth rate increase in Texas over the past few years demonstrates how many Texas women of reproductive age are being forced through pregnancies they might not have chosen to carry to term if it had been their choice.

Of course, Barnica is far from the only recent victim of anti-choice abortion politics. Earlier this fall, ProPublica published a report on the death of a 28-year-old black mother Amber Nicole Thurmanwho was blocked from receiving a potentially life-saving abortion because restrictive abortion laws in Georgia. ProPublica ran Thurman’s posthumous medical records in September Vice President and 2024 Democratic nominee Kamala Harris to highlight Thurman’s grieving family in an ad campaign dedicated to the link between untimely deaths like Thurman’s and his reversal roe by a Supreme Court appointed primarily by Trump in 2022.

On Monday, 111 Texas public officials signed a letter to their state’s elected officials condemning the death of Barnica and Nevaeh Craina pregnant teenager who died of organ failure after visiting the emergency room three times before finding a hospital willing to admit her. (Crain developed a dangerous complication of sepsis after doctors refused to treat her while her six-month-old fetus still had a heartbeat.) “The nature of Texas’ strict abortion law does not allow us as medical professionals to we do our job. ,” the undersigned doctors wrote, adding, “The law denies Texas women the lifesaving care they need and threatens doctors with life in prison and loss of license for doing what is often medically necessary for patient’s health and future fertility. Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain should be alive today.”