While Connecticut laws continue to protect the rights of residents to access reproductive care in response to changes in federal law, other states have adopted stringent abortion policies which, according to reports, are increasingly putting women in harm’s way.
In Texas, where abortions are banned after a fetal heartbeat is detected – and where the only exceptions are when a mother’s life is at risk – that policy has delivered dire results, according to a recent ProPublica report, which studied hospital discharge data in the state.
The investigation uncovered that, since Texas banned abortion, blood transfusions for women experiencing miscarriages in the first trimester of pregnancy rose by 54%, with at least one woman dying from miscarriage complications during that time. Emergency room visits for women in the first trimester of miscarriage grew by 25% during that time, which experts told the publication indicates delays in necessary care for women needing medical intervention.
Meanwhile, blood transfusions have grown from roughly 750 in 2017, when abortion was legal, to nearly 1,300 in 2023, two years after the ban went into place. Those numbers leapt by roughly one-third after 2020, according to the report.
Previous studies conducted by ProPublica found that sepsis rates among second-trimester losses of pregnancy grew by more than 50% after Texas’s abortion ban went into place.
Physical danger is just one of the concerns that women face in the 26 states with stringent abortion bans. According to a report from the Oklahoma Voice, women in states with abortion bans who experience natural miscarriages are potentially subject to arrest on charges of purposely harming their children. One woman in Ohio, who suffered a miscarriage in 2023 and was arrested on accusations she gave birth to and killed her child is now suing the hospital and staff that treated her, claiming they lied to police about her health and safety.
In the first year after the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights, Pregnancy Justice reported, 220 women were prosecuted on pregnancy-related charges; 191 of the charges allowed police to obtain convictions without proof the accused woman in question harmed a fetus or infant.
Another concern for pregnancy safety in the post-Roe landscape stems from a change to federal abortion laws regarding emergency care, MSNBC reports. This spring, the Trump administration revoked a policy requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions to save lives regardless of local laws. The change means that in states that do not update their regulations to allow for emergency abortion care, pregnancy complications can quickly become life-threatening if a woman is denied care. When miscarriage can impact 20% of pregnancies, and women are increasingly investigated and charged for miscarrying, this implies women could lose the care they need, be criminalized for medical complications, or both.However, in Connecticut, the state budget passed this year included provisions preventing discrimination against patients in this way, preserving reproductive rights in the state.
