What: ProPublica reports on a second woman in Georgia who died for lack of abortion care in her state. Candi Miller had lupus, diabetes, and hypertension, and doctors told her another baby could kill her. When she unintentionally got pregnant in 2022, the mother of three ordered abortion pills online. But the pills did not get all of the fetal tissue out, and she was afraid to go to the ER: “Her teenage son watched her suffer for days after she took the pills, bedridden and moaning. In the early hours of Nov. 12, 2022, her husband found her unresponsive in bed, her 3-year-old daughter at her side. An autopsy found unexpelled fetal tissue, confirming that the abortion had not fully completed.”

Why it matters: Miller also had painkillers including fentanyl in her system, but the state committee of experts in maternal health ruled it a preventable death: “’The fact that she felt that she had to make these decisions, that she didn’t have adequate choices here in Georgia, we felt that definitely influenced her case,’ one committee member told ProPublica. ‘She’s absolutely responding to this legislation.’ … There are almost certainly other deaths related to abortion access. Georgia’s committee, tasked with examining pregnancy-related deaths to improve maternal health, has only reviewed cases through fall 2022. Such a lag is common in these committees, which are set up in each state; most others have not even gotten that far.”

Source: ProPublica