Economy, Immigration, Abortion and More — ProPublica

Election Day is just days away, and political coverage is everywhere. At ProPublica, we avoid jump reporting and focus on reporting the deeper issues and trends affecting the country.

Here are some stories from last year about issues that matter to voters.

Abortion

When the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the 1970s ruling that guaranteed access to abortion nationwide, states quickly passed a series of laws restricting the procedure. 13 in total states now have total abortion bans.

ProPublica has carefully studied the impact of these laws over the past two years. Doctors told ProPublica that the confusion and fear of potential legal ramifications is changing the way their colleagues treat pregnant patients with complications.

• In Georgia, Amber Thurman took medication to end her pregnancy but died of an infection after her body failed to expel all the fetal tissuea rare complication that the suburban Atlanta hospital she attended was prepared to treat. But earlier that summer, the state had criminalized abortion, and because of the spread of Thurman’s infection, doctors waited nearly 20 hours before operating. When they finally did, it was too late. Thurman was the mother of a 6-year-old son. US senators are studying whether it is the hospital violated federal law by not intervening earlier, and an official state committee concluded that her death could have been prevented.

  Doctors and a nurse who cared for Thurman declined to comment and did not respond to questions from ProPublica. Communications officials at the hospital did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Georgia Department of Public Health, which oversees the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, said it could not comment on ProPublica’s reports because the committee’s proceedings are confidential and protected by federal law.

• In Texas, Joceli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She told this to her husband the medical team said they could not act until the fetal heartbeat stopped. Doctors treating Barnicki at HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest did not respond to multiple requests for comment on her case. In a statement, HCA Healthcare said, “Our responsibility is to comply with applicable state and federal laws and regulations,” and said doctors exercise independent judgment. The company did not respond to a detailed list of questions about Barnika’s care.

• In the second case in Texas, 18-year-old Nevaeh Crane, who was six months pregnant, made a total of three visits to two emergency rooms after experiencing abdominal cramps and other worrisome symptoms. At the first hospital, she was diagnosed with angina without evaluating the pregnancy. In the second, she developed sepsis, a life-threatening and rapid response to infection, medical records show. But doctors said her fetus had a heartbeat and that Crane was fine. During Crane’s third visit to the hospital, the obstetrician insisted on two ultrasounds to “confirm fetal death,” the nurse wrote, before suggesting a procedure called a dilation and curettage to remove the fetus. Crane died a few hours later.

  Doctors treating Crane did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Two hospitals, Southeast Texas Baptist Hospital and Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth of Christ, declined to answer detailed lists of questions about her treatment.

Immigration

As a quantity Encounters with migrants at the US border have increased under the Biden administrationimmigration has become a top issue for voters. ProPublica recently explored how this growth differs in key ways from past surges. In recent years, more people crossing the border are turning themselves in and asking for asylum rather than trying to avoid arrest.

• For decades, lobbyists from the business community have shaped immigration legislation and reshaped the debate. But in the age of Trump, businesses see a much greater risk in advocating such policiesa change that has made it even more difficult to reach a consensus on immigration reform, even as businesses across sectors say they need more immigrant workers.

Hospitality

The state of the U.S. economy is the biggest concern of voters, respectively to multiple surveys. Globally, inflation — the rate at which prices rise — has risen since 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic caused by supply chain disruptions, a surge in demand for goods and services, and the war in Ukraine.

• Democrats, including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, face an uphill battle for re-election in states that have quickly tilted toward Trump, despite the Biden administration’s investment in reviving manufacturing through anti-inflation laws and CHIPS. National Democrats often overlook how important where you live can be: Even if your own finances are secure, when you look out the window and see how hard it is in your city or town, you also believe. Some academics call it a sense of “common destiny,” and it could be a powerful force in this election, especially in small towns in the industrial Midwest.

Health care

Fourteen years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, more Americans have health insurance, but the system itself remains as broken and broken as ever. ProPublica has investigated various players in the health care system, from doctors accused of wrongdoing to insurers refuse to pay for life-saving treatment. This year, we also extensively explored mental health treatment and how, despite growing needs, America’s health care infrastructure is failing to provide meaningful support.

• Health insurance Cigna tracks every minute its staff doctors spend deciding whether to pay for health care. One former doctor at the company, Debbie Day, said her bosses were more concerned with being fast than being right: “Deny, deny, deny. That’s how you get to your numbers,” Day said. In written responses, Cigna said its medical directors do not have the authority to “stamp” nurse waiver recommendations. In all cases, the company wrote, it expects its doctors to “perform thorough, objective, independent and accurate reviews consistent with our coverage policies.”

  In 2023, ProPublica showed how Cigna rejects claims from patients without even reading them. In written responses about the program, Signa said the reports by ProPublica and The Capitol Forum were “biased and incomplete.” Cigna said its review system was created to “expedite the payment of claims for certain routine reviews,” Cigna wrote. “This allows us to automatically approve claims if they are submitted with the correct diagnosis codes.”

education

Few issues generate as much passion as the education of America’s schoolchildren. School boards and districts facing battles over school vouchers, book bans and COVID-19 — a conflict that is gradually changing the way children are educated in the United States, leaving them on different and uneven paths in school.

Many states led by conservative lawmakers and governors have pushed to rapidly expand school voucher programs that promise to allow students and their parents to put public money into the schools — private or public — of their choice.

• Texas, however, remains one of the biggest supporters of the school voucher program, in which state taxes can be used to pay for private schools. Gov. Greg Abbott campaigned aggressively against members of his party who did not support the voucher program. this fall, Abbott may finally get the votes he needs to pass the billfulfilling a decades-long wish of conservative donors in the state.

• We told the story of Courtney Gore, a Texas school board candidate who won her seat after saying on the campaign trail that children are being nurtured. She later renounced her party’s far-right platform finding no evidence of such efforts.

Foreign policy

The year-long war between Israel and Hamas has left tens of thousands dead, and Gaza is facing massive shortages of food, water and medical care. The war has sparked infighting in the Democratic Party and debate in the State Department over how best to manage the situation, given the long-standing US trade and military ties to Israel. Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have announced their desire to end the war quickly, though it’s not entirely clear what will get either side to agree.