Texas woman died after being denied abortion care due to abortion ban, report shows | Texas

Just days after Texas banned abortion in the last six weeks of pregnancy, a woman died after doctors in the state delayed processing her abortion for 40 hours. That was reported by ProPublica on Wednesday.

Experts told ProPublica that the September 2021 death of Josseli Barnica, a 28-year-old mother, was “preventable.” Barnica is the third woman reported by ProPublica to have died in recent years after being unable to access abortion legally or get his medical care delayed.

Although U.S. abortion bans — which more than a dozen states have passed in the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade — technically allow the procedure in medical emergencies, doctors across the country have said the laws are so vaguely worded that they don’t know when they can legally intervene. Instead, many doctors say they have been forced to wait until a patient is on the verge of death – and then try to withdraw them.

Barnica went to the hospital with seizures when she was just over 17 weeks pregnant on Sept. 2, 2021, the day after Texas’ six-week abortion ban went into effect, according to ProPublica. (Texas passed the ban nearly a year before Roe was overturned; it now bans abortion from conception.) When her bleeding worsened the following day, Barnica returned to the hospital, where a doctor concluded that an abortion was “in progress.” Another quickly concluded that a miscarriage was “inevitable.”

Barnica’s cervix was dilated to nearly 9 cm, a condition that left her vulnerable to fast-acting infections, ProPublica reported. Usually, in cases like Barnica’s doctors, the doctors will offer medicine to speed up the delivery or perform a procedure to empty the uterus.

But Barnica’s fetus still had a heartbeat. And under the Texas ban, doctors could not intervene unless a “medical emergency” developed — a term not defined in the law.

About 40 hours after Barnica’s second arrival at the hospital, doctors stopped being able to detect a fetal heartbeat, according to the report. A doctor sped up her labor with the help of medicine and delivered Barnica’s fetus. But after she returned home, Barnica’s bleeding continued and worsened.

Within days, she was back in the hospital, where she died of sepsis involving “products of conception,” according to her autopsy report. Her widower is now raising their four-year-old daughter, ProPublica reported.

Several experts, including OB-GYNs and fetal medicine specialists, told ProPublica that delaying Barnica’s care was against the medical standard of care because of the risk of infection. Had she been given opportunities earlier, they told the outlet, Barnica might have survived.

Doctors involved in Barnica’s case did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. In a statement, HCA Healthcare, the hospital chain that treated Barnica, told ProPublica that doctors exercised independent judgment and “our responsibility is to comply with applicable state and federal laws and regulations.”

Abortion and the consequences of banning the procedure have become one of the main issues in the US election as support for abortion rights has surged in the years since Roe was overturned and dozens of women have come forward to say they were denied medically necessary treatment. Kamala Harris has made protecting abortion rights a key part of her political platform, while Donald Trump and other Republicans have tried to avoid discussing it or flip-flop on the issue.

“My heart breaks for the Barnica family,” Colin Allred, a U.S. representative from Dallas who is running for a Senate seat, wrote on X Wednesday. Allred is running against Ted Cruz, the avowedly anti-abortion senator, and has made abortion rights a central element of his campaign. “Josseli Barnica should be alive today, but because of Ted Cruz’s cruel abortion ban, Texas women have been denied the life-saving health care they need. We can’t afford six more years of Ted Cruz.”

Cruz has recently kept quiet about abortion. He declined a ProPublica request for comment, as did Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In the weeks since ProPublica first reported on two Georgia women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Millerwho died after being unable to access legal abortions in their home states, Trump has also largely avoided commenting on their specific cases. During a Fox News town hall, however, host Harris Faulkner told Trump that Thurman’s family was holding a press conference.

“We’ll get better ratings, I promise,” Trump joked. The audience laughed.