Pregnant teen from Texas dies after three emergency room visits due to impact of abortion ban | Texas

A pregnant Texas teenager died after three separate visits to an emergency room trying to get care in another incident that has highlighted the medical impact of the loss of abortion rights in the United States.

Nevaeh Crain, 18, had gone to two different emergency rooms within 12 hours in October 2023, each time returning home feeling worse than before. Crain was first diagnosed with strep throat on his first visit. The hospital did not investigate her sharp abdominal cramps, according to reporting by ProPublica.

Crain is one of at least two women in Texas who died under the state’s abortion ban, which was brought in after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion. Josseli Barnica, 28, died after a miscarriage in 2021.

These incidents are seen as evidence of a new reality in which American health professionals in states with tough new abortion restrictions are hesitant or even afraid to provide care to expectant mothers for fear of legal repercussions. Texas’ abortion ban threatens prison terms for procedures that end a fetal heartbeat, whether the pregnancy is wanted or not.

Medical records show Crain tested positive for sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition, at his second visit. But doctors still cleared her to leave after apparently confirming her six-month-old fetus still had a heartbeat.

On her third trip to the hospital, Crain was finally moved to intensive care after an obstetrician insisted on two ultrasounds to “confirm fetal death,” reported ProPublica.

She died hours later after suffering organ failure. A nurse noted that her lips had turned “blue and dark”. ProPublica said. The teenager would have turned 20 on Friday.

Although Texas maintains exemptions for life-threatening conditions, the fear and uncertainty instilled in doctors about what treatments may or may not be considered a crime has had devastating effects on women in need of health care.

The result is that patients in states with abortion bans are often traded between hospitals to avoid liability and argue over legalities, an act that wastes precious and potentially life-saving time.

“Pregnant women have essentially become untouchable,” said Sara Rosenbaum, professor emerita of health law and policy at George Washington University. ProPublica.

The president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, Mini Timmaraju, said Crain’s death underscored the deadly threat abortion bans pose.

“Pregnancy should not be a death sentence,” Timmaraju said in a statement.

Timmaraju placed the blame for abortion bans on the shoulders of Republican politicians such as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the incumbent Texas senator who faces a tough re-election battle against Democrat Collin Allred.

“This has to stop,” she said. “And our best chance to do that is to vote for reproductive freedom,” including by endorsing Allred and Kamala Harris against Trump in the Nov. 5 election.

By doing so, “we can restore the right to abortion and these prohibitions,” Timmaraju said.