Pregnancy Loss and Complications
Are Women Dying from Abortion Bans or Is the Media Lying?
*Sources are in links embedded in underlined text. I want to send a public thank you to Petra Wallenmeyer who helped reformat my 25-tweet thread on X, https://twitter.com/TruthAgape/status/1852661439523082675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November, into this article while I cared for patients in acute crisis. Without her, I would never have been able to pull this off this week.
There have been multiple media articles about women dying from a lack of emergent care due to abortion bans. A Democrat PAC ran several ads regarding abortion bans and one particularly retraumatizing and despicable ad the last week before the last week of Presidential elections of 2024. The claim of the ad was that women are dying because Republican politicians desire to interrupt needed emergent care and make decisions for doctors when women’s lives are on the line.
As a woman who has had an abortion, a miscarriage, and 4 other pregnancies including a high-risk pregnancy resulting in an emergency C-section at 32 weeks; the ad retriggered my PTSD responses resulting in a panic attack, nausea, uncontrollable weeping, rage, and disgust. I was watching my trauma be exploited by a political party in order to drum up support for votes based on fear created by a lie, their lie. I was hardly alone as many other women reported in reply to my 4 tweets regarding the ad,
https://x.com/TruthAgape/status/1853226567251431536
https://x.com/TruthAgape/status/1853480340825759997
https://x.com/TruthAgape/status/1853263544802058342
https://x.com/TruthAgape/status/1853200614043303973
Please forgive any expletives contained in those tweets. I was in emotional distress for at least 24 hours due to the retraumatization that ad caused. So much for Democrats supposed concern about women’s experiences, I guess.
What is actual worse than politicans exploiting women’s painful losses and experiences, is activist doctor’s duing the same. Approximately 111 doctors signed onto a letter stating their ability to practice in Texas had been impeded by the Texas abortion law.
Dear reader, I need you to consider what it is these doctors are saying. They are declaring they cannot act to save women’s lives. That can mean only 2 things. Either:
A) They are allowing women to die or abandoning women in life-threatening situations, gross incompetence.
or
B) They are lying about the effect of the law for political and ideological reasons, gross malfeasance.
This is an egregious violation of medical code of ethics that puts women’s lives in danger. These doctors are putting politics about patient care. They are abandoning women in their efforts to push abortion on demand. It is vile and should be pursued by the Texas Medical Board. Please, dear women of Texas, avoid these activists who are admitting they are unwilling to act to save your life.
Consider this:
If women were being denied care for life-threatening complications or refusal to deliver dead babies, we'd have 100,000s of deaths of women every year. Let’s take a look at the statistics regarding stillbirths, miscarriages, life-threatening complications, and maternal mortality.
Stillbirth
Sadly, hundreds of babies are stillborn in every almost state every year. States with less population, like Montana, still unfortunately have dozens of stillbirths a year.
Approximately 21,000 stillbirths occur every year.
Miscarriage
There are approximately 1,000,000 miscarriages every year in the United States. The majority of those end with home management and no life-threatening complications. Approximately 63,000 need medical management, whether that be medication or surgery.
Pregnancy Complications
Life-threatening complications during pregnancy are rare. But 15% of 6,369,000 pregnancies = 955,350 life-threatening complications annually.
Maternal Mortality
Less than .0001% of pregnancies end in the woman's death annually. That's approximately 640 women who die each year due to complications during pregnancy/birth. That's still FAR too many. That number would be approximately 98 times higher if women were being denied care in states with abortion bans.
Adding It All Up
With 21,000 stillbirths, 63,000 medically treated miscarriages, and 955,350 life-threatening complications annually; 1,039,350 women need care they claim is banned.
Forty-one states have abortion bans – this means 852,267 women would die annually if denied care in those states. Thirteen states have near total bans – this means 270,231 women would die annually if denied care in those states.
Yet, 640 women die annually. If we only consider the states with near total bans, that is a discrepancy of 269,591 deaths.
What Does It All Mean?
You are being lied to about women's healthcare by fear-mongering politicians, journalists, activists, doctors who represent the abortion industry, and the abortion industry itself.
Obstacles in the way of your ability to receive life-saving care has nothing to do with abortion law and everything to do with malpractice and the medical community being terrorized by those who want abortion more than they want you to receive quality care.
That should piss off every woman regardless of political position on abortion or party. No law prohibits treatment of miscarriage, stillbirth, or life-threatening complications. Not a single one. If a woman dies due to a lack of care, that is medical malpractice and illegal in every state.
Multiple studies (see here, here, here, here, and here) have shown a lack of appropriate care for miscarriage in emergency departments since long before the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Those screaming at you about "abortion or women die" are actively shielding those who commit malpractice from the investigations and prosecutions that should be taking place. What is as disturbing is the exploitation of dead women and babies by these politicians, journalists, activists, doctors, and the abortion industry who care more about their careers than women or children.
Maternal Mortality
Maternal mortality is an entirely separate issue, complicated due to difficult terminology used. In calculating maternal mortality, the numbers include direct (pregnancy related) and indirect deaths (pregnancy-associated).
What is even more confusing is each state has its own terminology ranging from:
Direct deaths:
Pregnancy caused - Pregnancy related (deaths directly linked to pregnancy complications)
Indirect deaths:
Pregnancy associated - Pregnancy adjacent (factors tangentially related to pregnancy). Example: mental health complications post birth.
Pregnancy associated but not related - Pregnancy unrelated (occurred during pregnancy but unrelated). Example: car accident.
Indirect deaths aren't caused by pregnancy complications but are included in rates of maternal mortality in media. Over 60% of deaths are post parturition, and nearly 25% of those are due to mental health complications.
Thus, due to which cases are included in maternal deaths versus maternal mortality, we go from a maternal death rate of less than .0001% of pregnancies to a maternal mortality rate of .0003% of pregnancies per year.
Coding for Maternal Mortality
The coding for maternal morality includes A34, 000-095, and 098-099. Code 099 includes mental health complications post birth along with other complications caused by pregnancy.
Flaws in the Data
Some news companies attempted to point out flawed data collection practices and flawed reporting in maternal mortality rates. These flaws included counting some women who were over 85 years old and some who died during accidents/homicides.
The inaccurate data more than doubled the rates of maternal mortality in under a decade. Thus, the false narrative of the US being the deadliest first-world country for pregnant women was born.
Now that narrative is used to promote abortion, despite causes of maternal mortality being unrelated to abortion since abortion is not a prevention, treatment, or cure for causes of maternal mortality
Do you see how you are being manipulated?
The CDC claims that an attempt to correct inaccurate collection practices will result in harm to families of women who died, even if unrelated to pregnancy. Of course, abortion bans are mentioned as is race and women who died a full year after birth.
Conclusion
It is extremely important for informed consent and for women's healthcare that accurate information be provided to the public and women who are pregnant or are considering pregnancy.
When women's lives are lost, it is extremely important we have accurate data as to what caused their deaths. We cannot prevent deaths when we are aiming prevention efforts in the wrong direction. Thus, claims about abortion bans that do NOT prevent treatment misguide our attention and efforts in the wrong direction. We spend time, money, and energy on attempting to fight a strawman.
Women deserve a society that is fully aware of the causes of maternal mortality and what can be done to reduce them. In particular, medical malpractice that delays treatment needs to be addressed. Those with the power to address medical malpractice include hospital ethics boards, hospital administration, state attorney generals, state legislature, and Congress.
The United States Senate Finance Committee did send a letter to 8 hospitals demanding more information regarding women being turned away from care. This is an important first step in identifying what is happening in hospitals. While the letter, unfortunately, assumes the issue is the state laws which gives the hospitals cover for malpractice should they decide to hide behind that faulty explanation, it also demands answers for questions regarding whether or not changes have occurred in the hospitals since the abortion bans took effect.
It is imperative members on both sides of the proverbial political aisle set aside differences and work together on behalf of women's health to address misinformation media, some politicians, and the abortion industry. Women are not made safer by fear mongering or inaccurate data. Women’s lives will only be saved when we address the actual causes of maternal mortality and address any medical malpractice that is occurring.