Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared
Pro Publica, February 20, 2025
Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion in 2021, ProPublica found in a first-of-its-kind data analysis. The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester, ProPublica found. The surge in this life-threatening condition, caused by infection, was most pronounced for patients whose fetus may still have had a heartbeat when they arrived at the hospital. The new reporting shows that, after the state banned abortion, dozens more pregnant and postpartum women died in Texas hospitals than had in pre-pandemic years, which ProPublica used as a baseline to avoid COVID-19-related distortions. As the maternal mortality rate dropped nationally, ProPublica found, it rose substantially in Texas. The new analysis comes as Texas legislators consider amending the abortion ban in the wake of ProPublica’s previous reporting, and as doctors, federal lawmakers and the state’s largest newspaper have urged Texas officials to review pregnancy-related deaths from the first full years after the ban was enacted; the state maternal mortality review committee has, thus far, opted not to examine the death data for 2022 and 2023.
Supreme Court Declines Chance To Overturn Precedent Limiting Protests Outside Abortion Clinics
CNN, February 24, 2025
The Supreme Court opted against hearing arguments in a pair of appeals Monday seeking to wipe out protest buffer zones around abortion clinics – a move that, for now, will leave those restrictions in place. Protected zones around clinics have been a legal issue for decades, but the fight was reanimated by the 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Most significantly, the conservative majority signaled in that opinion that it has deep reservations with the 24-year-old precedent allowing cities to create the protest-free areas.
Georgia Justices Order New Look at Whether Lawsuit Challenging Near-Ban on Abortion Can Proceed
U.S. News, February 20, 2025
A lawsuit challenging Georgia’s near-ban on abortion is headed back to a trial court to decide if the people who want to overturn the law have legal standing to sue. The Georgia Supreme Court voted 6-1 on Thursday to require the trial court judge to re-examine standing issues, citing its own January decision that changed state law on who is qualified to sue. Georgia’s law, signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, was one of a wave of restrictive abortion measures that took effect in Republican-controlled states after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and ended a national right to abortion. It prohibits most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present. At around six weeks into a pregnancy, cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in an embryo’s cells that will eventually become the heart.
What Are Abortion Shield Laws?
TIME, February 24, 2025
In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, many states have moved to protect the right to abortion, and several have turned to a new tool to do so: abortion shield laws. The laws are intended to preserve abortion access by protecting multiple classes of people—abortion providers practicing in states where abortion is legal, as well as patients and people who help them access abortion—from civil and criminal actions taken by states with bans or restrictions on abortion. Now, these laws are being tested through two legal challenges in Texas and Louisiana, both involving a New York doctor. Abortion shield laws are “novel protections” enacted in 18 states and Washington, D.C., says Lizzy Hinkley, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which has helped draft some of these laws. The laws provide protections for doctors providing medication or in-clinic abortions in the shield state, according to Rachel Rebouché, dean and professor at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Every law is different, so the protections offered by each state vary, but can include the shield state refusing to comply with another state’s extradition order for a doctor who has provided reproductive health care that’s legally protected in the shield state, refusing to participate in another state’s investigation into the provider, and refusing to penalize the provider through professional discipline.
Missouri Lawmaker Proposes Tracking System for Pregnant Women ‘At Risk of Seeking An Abortion’
KSHB Kansas City, February 20, 2025
A Missouri lawmaker wants the state to create a list of pregnant women who are “at risk” of seeking an abortion. Bill HB 807, proposed by Rep. Phil Amato (R – Arnold), is nicknamed the “Save MO Babies Act.” If passed, Missouri would create a central registry “of each expecting mother who is at risk for seeking an abortion.” The bill does not detail how the state will determine if a woman is “at risk” of seeking an abortion. The bill would also track “each prospective adoptive parent who has successfully completed certain screenings, background checks, home studies, and other investigations to ensure the fit of the prospective parent to adopt a child.” The list would be created through the Maternal and Child Services division of the Department of Social Services. The proposed bill comes one month after state lawmakers introduced a different bill aimed at prohibiting abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected, except in cases of medical emergencies.
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Note: The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
