What: After a Texas state committee announced they wouldn’t study recent pregnancy-related deaths, ProPublica bought Texas hospital data from 2018-2023 and reviewed it themselves. They found the rate of sepsis increased more than 50% for women who lost their pregnancies in the second trimester *after* abortion was banned in the state. The rate of sepsis hovered around 3% for second trimester pregnancy losses in the months before Texas’ ban went into effect but shot up to 4.9% in the same time period after.

Key line: “The standard of care for miscarrying patients in the second trimester is to offer to empty the uterus, according to leading medical organizations, which can lower the risk of contracting an infection and developing sepsis. If a patient’s water breaks or her cervix opens, that risk rises with every passing hour. Sepsis can lead to permanent kidney failure, brain damage and dangerous blood clotting. Nationally, it is one of the leading causes of deaths in hospitals. While some Texas doctors have told ProPublica they regularly offer to empty the uterus in these cases, others say their hospitals don’t allow them to do so until the fetal heartbeat stops or they can document a life-threatening complication.”

Source: ProPublica article and methodology