Texas Obstetricians urge lawmakers to change abortion laws after reports of deaths of pregnant women

A group of 111 obstetricians in Texas published a letter to elected state leaders on Sunday urging them to change abortion laws that they say prevent them from providing life-saving care to pregnant women.

Doctors noted ProPublica’s recent report about two pregnant Texas women who died because medical staff delayed emergency care.

Josseli BarnicaThe 28-year-old woman died from the infection three days after she started miscarrying in 2021. More than a dozen medical experts said Barnica’s death was preventable. But the state’s abortion laws prevented doctors from intervening until they could detect a fetal heartbeat; This occurred approximately 40 hours after the onset of the miscarriage.

Nevaeh CrainThe 18-year-old woman died last year after developing a dangerous complication of sepsis that doctors refused to treat while her six-month-old fetus still had a heartbeat. Two emergency rooms did not treat him, and a third delayed care, and Crain was moved to the intensive care unit only after experiencing organ failure. Medical professionals said they might have helped Crain go into labor early if hospital staff had treated her early, or they might have saved her life by terminating the pregnancy if the infection had gone too far.

“Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain should be alive today,” the doctors wrote in their report. letter. “As OB-GYNs in Texas, we know firsthand how much these laws restrict our ability to provide quality, evidence-based care to our patients.”

In 2021, Texas lawmakers passed a law banning doctors from performing abortions after six weeks. The law allows the public to sue doctors or anyone who assists with an abortion for $10,000.

After the Dobbs-Jackson decision overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas banned nearly all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest. The law makes an exception for an abortion if a doctor believes it is necessary to save the pregnant patient’s life. Doctors who violate the state’s abortion law risk losing their medical license and potentially spending life in prison.

Confusion over what constitutes a life-threatening condition is changing the way they treat pregnant patients with complications, doctors said. Texas Medical Board proposed guidance It was decided how to interpret the law’s medical exception, and the Texas Supreme Court ruled that doctors need not wait until there is an imminent risk to intervene with the patient. But some doctors say the guidance is vague and hospitals evaluate each situation on a case-by-case basis.

ProPublica’s reporting on Crain and Barnica comes as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and U.S. Representative. Colin Allred Dallas is facing a heated bid for one of Texas’ two U.S. Senate seats. Their different views on abortion was a central issue in the race, and both candidates weighed in on the deaths of Crain and Barnica.

“Texas doctors can’t do their jobs because of Ted Cruz’s draconian abortion ban,” Allred said. wrote to xLinks to story on Crain. “Cruz even lobbied SCOTUS to allow states to ban life-saving emergency abortions.”

Cruz sponsored a 20-week federal abortion ban in 2021. He also introduced a bill that would allow states to block medical providers who perform abortions from receiving Medicaid funding. The US Supreme Court’s Roe v. After overturning the Wade case, Cruz celebrated the decision as a “huge victory.”

Cruz has previously said he thinks Texas’ exception for saving the life of the pregnant mother works. He repeated this stance this week. announced the deaths of Crain and Barnica “heartbreaking” The procedures necessary to save the life of the pregnant mother are legal in Texas, he told The Houston Chronicle in an interview.

Dozens of women came forward They were unable to get the health care they needed for medically complex pregnancies after the state’s abortion ban went into effect, she said.

Last year, state lawmakers passed a law allowing abortions for people with ectopic pregnancies, an unviable type of pregnancy in which the embryo implants outside the uterus and the patient’s waters break before the fetus becomes viable.

Doctors who signed the letter said they want to see changes in state laws.

“Texas needs a change. A change in the law. A change in the way we legislate medical decisions that need to be made between the patient, their family and their doctor.”