More than a dozen ProPublica reporters are working across the country to cover reproductive health after the abortion ban. We hope to hear from health professionals, families and policy makers. We asked Deputy editor-in-chief Alexander Zayas explain our reporting process and the ethics that guide it.
It is now clear that state abortion bans are having a seismic impact on public health. They, as intended, prevent doctors from terminating pregnancies. But they also introduce a dangerous new dynamic for those who accidentally become pregnant.
The doctors told us they saw their colleagues hesitate to treat deadly diseases like pre-eclampsia and cancer, worried that their attempts to protect their pregnant patients could be construed as a crime against the fetus, punishable by prison terms.
Abortion advocates insist that these doctors are being misled or confused and that the so-called “mother’s life” exceptions are obvious. But even a Republican lawmaker who voted for his state’s bandoctor himself, told ProPublica that he thought the language was too vague.
indeed Death of Amber Thurman raises critical questions about the role of abortion bans in emergency physician decisions. Suffering from a serious infection, the 28-year-old paramedic and single mother needed the procedure, which has been criminalized in Georgia, with few exceptions. When her condition worsened at a suburban Atlanta hospital, doctors discussed the possibility of carrying her out, but they did not until 20 hours after her arrival; by then it was too late. A state committee of maternal health experts, including 10 doctors, found her death could have been prevented and blamed the delay in getting help.
The more cases like this we look at, the more we can do to expose the cracks through which women fall.
ProPublica has a long and successful track record of investigating the causes of maternal harm. Seven years ago, we devoted a significant portion of our staff to investigating why so many women in the United States die from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. We dug through past academic studies and hospital data to examine individual preventable deaths. What specific flaws in the system that can be fixed cost us Lauren Blumsteinand Shalon Irvingand Dacheka Fleurimonde? What left their children motherless?
Every loss was a tragedy. But when the people closest to these mothers shared what they knew, they also learned lessons about how to save the next life, shedding light on the causes and consequences of maternal mortality like no other. ProPublica’s report on “Lost Mothers” had a tremendous impact, including landmark new law funding research into maternal deaths and ways to prevent them.
Our reports so far suggest that state abortion bans do exist unintended, deadly consequences. If there are more cases, only those closest to you know the most critical details. That’s why we’ve re-dedicated a significant portion of our editorial to the study of preventable maternal deaths — and that’s why we need your help to uncover them so that those empowered to change systems can learn from them.
If you know of a case where you suspect abortion laws played a role, we understand why you might be hesitant to let us know. That’s why we want to tell you more about our reporting process and the ethics that guide it.
We are non-partisan.
We are a non-profit independent newsroom and have no partisan agenda in reporting these deaths. While we conduct the necessary scrutiny of the GOP state governments that have enacted these bans, we also wonder what else the Biden administration can do to assess and mitigate their impact.
Ahead of a tumultuous election with abortion debates in 10 states — and on the lips of presidential candidates — we want voters to know all they can about the impact of state bans on the safety of anyone who can become pregnant.
We rely on and protect anonymous sources.
The public will only know about it thanks to the bravery of ProPublica’s anonymous sources the horror of the separation of children at the US-Mexico borderand the intertwined interests of billionaire donors and Supreme Court justicesand the preventable abortion-related deaths we identified in Georgia.
We have secure ways to communicate with us and send us documents. We honor agreements not to name sources in our stories. We do not rely on any single source for reporting; we independently and diligently confirm and confirm the evidence.
We help families find answers.
We can help families obtain medical records and then consult with experts about them. We take our findings and go to hospitals, clinics and doctors and demand answers from them. We are working hard to verify every fact and keep families informed of our progress.
We want to know not only about the last moments of a person’s life, but also to help the public understand the extent of the loss and how to avoid the next one. We can travel and meet families face-to-face at a time, place and pace that is most convenient for them. We understand that families are already experiencing a loss of control, and we are working hard not to add to it.
When reporter Kavita Surana first began speaking with members of Thurman’s family, their grief was genuine and intense, and they didn’t feel ready to deal with their loss. It was a year before they were finally ready to discuss her death.
“I hope her death will not be in vain,” her sister Kewanna Williams told ProPublica.
We value experience.
Recognizing that each of these cases involves a unique set of highly complex factors, we seek independent experts to help us interpret and convey all the details. We never rely on a single source, and we subject our breaking stories to a rigorous editing process by journalists with decades of experience reporting on health systems.
If you have a story to share or an experience to volunteer, you can contact the whole team, including the editors, at (email protected). You can also leave us a voice message at 917-512-0242.
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