RFK’s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data – Mother Jones

“How are we going to solve the Black maternal mortality crisis if we cannot say ‘Black’?”

 https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/06/maternal-health-black-mothers-crisis-listening-national-partnership-hhs-rfk/

A Tennessee woman needed an abortion to save her life. She then joined a lawsuit against the state’s ban

“What the state is trying to do by this delay is prevent these women from telling their story in court,” Goldstein said. “The state wants to convince the people of Tennessee that the abortion ban is working and that women who need medically necessary abortion care are getting it. And what women in our case prove, and what the state is very afraid of coming to light, is that it’s not working. Women are being denied care, they’re getting infected, they’re going septic, and this is all because doctors are terrified to provide standard medical treatment that they used to provide to their patients before the ban went into effect.”…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/27/tennessee-abortion-lawsuit-halted

 

Michigan group spotlights Black Maternal Health Week and the risks Black women face giving birth

Danielle Atkinson, the executive director of the public policy-focused group Mothering Justice, pointed to federal data that show Black women are 3-4 times more likely than their white counterparts to die of childbirth-related complications — a disparity that persists even when factoring in things like education and income level. 

“It really speaks to the barriers, the economic barriers, the racial issues in our healthcare system and society, and how they have an effect on the lives of our people who are birthing,” Atkinson said...

 https://www.michiganpublic.org/health/2026-04-12/michigan-group-spotlights-black-maternal-health-week-and-the-risks-black-women-face-giving-birth

 

5 ProPublica Investigations Sparking Change in February — ProPublica

The new mandated training for any doctor providing obstetric care goes over nine case studies for physicians where abortion is considered legal to protect the life of the patient. Some of the scenarios in the training are similar to instances ProPublica investigated, such as miscarriages where a patient's water breaks before term but there is still a fetal heartbeat or when someone is experiencing complications from an incomplete abortion. 

ProPublica's reporting has shown that pregnancy became far more dangerous in the state after the law took effect: Sepsis rates spiked for women suffering a pregnancy loss, as did emergency room visits in which miscarrying patients needed a blood transfusion; at least four women in the state died after they didn't receive timely reproductive care. More than a hundred OB-GYNs said the state's abortion ban was to blame…

https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-investigations-february-impact

Five key findings from our investigation into the Free Birth Society

Year-long investigation into multimillion-dollar business exposed serious concerns, from dangerous medical claims to FBS-linked stillbirths…

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/nov/23/five-key-findings-from-our-investigation-into-the-free-birth-society

 

Mississippi declares infant deaths emergency as CDC program that could have helped is halted

The Trump administration's shakeup of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has forced Mississippi to stop gathering critical data on women's experiences before, during and after pregnancy – even as the state recently declared a public health emergency over its surging infant mortality rate...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/16/mississippi-infant-deaths-cdc-prams

 

Trump administration rescinds policy requiring emergency abortion care - The Washington Post

The Biden-era guidance, now overturned, directed hospitals to perform abortions when needed to protect pregnant patients whose health was in jeopardy...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/06/04/emtala-emergency-abortion-guidance/

Texas hospital that sent woman home with nonviable pregnancy violated the law, federal inquiry finds | PBS News

"We see patients with miscarriages being denied care, bleeding out in parking lots. We see patients with nonviable pregnancies being told to continue those to term," said Molly Duane, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights that represented Thurman. "This is not, maybe, what some people thought abortion bans would look like, but this is the reality."

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/texas-hospital-that-sent-woman-home-with-nonviable-pregnancy-violated-the-law-federal-inquiry-finds

Trump rescinds Emtala guidance protecting women in need of emergency abortions | Trump administration | The Guardian

Abortion rights supporters said on Tuesday that rescinding the Biden administration's guidance will muddy hospitals' ability to interpret Emtala and endanger pregnant patients' lives. Since Roe's collapse, dozens of women have come forward to say that they were denied medical treatment due to abortion bans. A reported five pregnant women have died after having their care denied or delayed, or being unable to access legal abortions. 

"This action sends a clear message: the lives and health of pregnant people are not worth protecting," Dr Jamila Perritt, an OB-GYN and the president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in a statement. "Complying with this law can mean the difference between life and death for pregnant people, forcing providers like me to choose between caring for someone in their time of need and turning my back on them to comply with cruel and dangerous laws."…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/03/trump-admin-emergency-abortion-emtala

 

Study strengthens link between maternal diabetes and autism | Reuters

A large new study adds to evidence that diabetes during pregnancy is linked with an increased risk of brain and nervous system problems in children, including autism, researchers say. 

Whether diabetes actually causes those problems remains unclear. But when mothers have diabetes while pregnant, children are 28% more likely to be diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder, according to an analysis of data pooled from 202 earlier studies involving more than 56 million mother-child pairs...

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/study-strengthens-link-between-maternal-diabetes-autism-2025-04-07/

 

Woman's arrest after miscarriage in Georgia draws fear and anger

"Chandler-Scott's arrest comes at a time when a growing number of women are facing pregnancy-related prosecutions in which the fetus is treated as a person with legal rights. And her experience raises troubling questions about miscarriages that happen in states with strict abortion laws, women's health advocates say. How should remains be disposed of? And who gets to decide?" 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/georgia-arrest-miscarriage-fetal-personhood-rcna199400

 

Trump administration eviscerates maternal and child health programs

 The cuts to maternal health programs may serve a second purpose for Republicans. 

Such programs have come under fire in some conservative states, in part because the experts involved investigate deaths that could have been prevented with abortion services – now illegal or severely restricted in nearly two dozen conservative states… 

 Meanwhile, experts in HIV/Aids, worker health and safety, healthcare for society's most vulnerable, and experts in maternal and child health have received "reduction in force" notices, a federal term for layoffs, or have been placed on administrative leave with the expectation of being eliminated. 

"It certainly appears there was a particular focus on parts of HHS that dealt with women's or reproductive health," said Sean Tipton, chief policy officer at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, about the cuts. 

He added: "How in the world you can justify the CDC eliminating the division of maternal mortality is beyond me."…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/maternal-child-health-cuts

 

 

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared. — ProPublica

ProPublica's first-of-its-kind analysis is the most detailed look yet into a rise in life-threatening complications for women experiencing pregnancy loss under Texas' abortion ban...

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-sepsis-maternal-mortality-analysis

Coast Guard Commander Elizabeth Nakagawa Nearly Died After Being Denied Miscarriage Care — ProPublica

U.S. service members have long faced strict limits on abortions, even when used to resolve miscarriages. Under federal law, the military will only pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother's life...

https://www.propublica.org/article/elizabeth-nakagawa-miscarriage-military-tricare-abortion-policy

Texas, Georgia limit reviews of women's deaths under abortion bans

…"Texas won't investigate any deaths from the past two years that are potentially linked to abortion bans, like Ngumezi's.…"

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/texas-georgia-women-deaths-abortion-ban-rcna182540

Texas woman dies after receiving inadequate treatment for a miscarriage | Texas | The Guardian

Porsha Ngumezi, 35, is the fifth pregnant woman ProPublica reports to have died in connection to the fall of Roe v Wade…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/25/texas-porsha-ngumezi-miscarriage-abortion-ban

Sen. Whitehouse Bashes the GOP's Criminalization of Women's Health Care hearing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrpcY85JzNQ

'I'm real tired of it': Experts put 'corrupt liar' Alito on notice amid Supreme Court leak - Raw Story

"Sam Alito knows that the EMTALA statute requires stabilizing treatment for a pregnant woman OR her fetus, not a pregnant woman AND her fetus. The statute was amended because hospitals were turning away pregnant patients whose fetuses needed stabilizing care even if they themselves did not. The law doesn't require a physician to prioritize the life of a fetus over the life of a pregnant person. But Sam Alito wants it to. He's singing the personhood blues. So he just lies about what the statute says. Textualist, my shiny Black ass. He's a corrupt liar."…

https://www.rawstory.com/samuel-alito-attacked-corupt-liar/

Texas man describes confusion over how to treat wife's miscarriage: "Doctors feel scared.”

Texas radio host Ryan Hamilton says his wife was sent away from one hospital after the drugs to help treat her miscarriage didn't work. In Part 2 of our interview with him on "CBS Mornings," he tells us about driving to a second hospital to get help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3MUc2Ibpjk

Idaho's abortion argument to Supreme Court is offensive to E.R. docs like me

Idaho wants to redefine what it means to acceptably skirt death, but emergency medicine is not a "let's see what happens" practice. We are a "let's take care of this before it gets out of hand" practice...

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/supreme-court-idaho-abortion-ban-rcna148890