Another day, another report of a woman dying because of Texas’ steadfast refusal to grant half the population bodily autonomy.
This time, the victim was Nevaeh Crain, a pregnant 18-year-old East Texas resident, who died after three separate emergency room visits in October of 2023.
Each time, ProPublica reported that Crain returned home from the hospital feeling worse than before.
Crain is now one of at least two Texas women who have tragically passed due to complications exacerbated by our draconian abortion bans. These are the downstream effects of such policies: Neither of the women were even seeking abortions. They just needed medical care, and doctors didn’t provide it. In the case of Josseli Barnica, who lost her life at 28 after suffering a miscarriage in 2021, physicians believed it might be a “crime” to treat her until there was no fetal heartbeat.
Doctors in states with these new hard-line abortion laws seem increasingly hesitant to provide care to pregnant women, lest they find themselves facing criminal charges. In Texas, that could mean prison time for medical interventions that stop a fetal heartbeat, even if the pregnancy isn’t viable. Texas law does technically have exceptions for life-threatening situations, but the legal gray areas have put doctors in a state of constant guesswork. And in May, the Texas Supreme Court refused a request to clarify the definitions of those “medical exceptions,” despite a lawsuit asking for the state to help doctors understand the rules.
Crain’s medical records revealed she tested positive for sepsis at the second of three emergency room visits. Despite the fact that sepsis is potentially fatal, doctors sent her home again when they saw that her six-month-old fetus still had a heartbeat.
By her third ER visit, an obstetrician demanded two ultrasounds to confirm that her pregnancy had ended, according to ProPublica. Crain was finally admitted to intensive care, but it was too late. She passed away hours later from organ failure.
“Pregnant women have become essentially untouchables,” Sara Rosenbaum, a health law and policy professor emerita at George Washington University, told ProPublica.
It’s worth noting that doctors warned us that people would die if Roe was overturned. If only our state’s leaders had listened.