Pro-abortion media outlets weaponize reporting on maternal deaths

Various media outlets have followed the lead of ProPublica in sensationalizing and weaponizing the idea of “preventable” pregnancy-related deaths, focusing on individual cases that have occurred in states with laws protecting preborn children from induced abortion. These outlets, however, have targeted pro-life states and ignored similar maternal deaths occurring in pro-abortion states — deaths which were also labeled “preventable.”

In this way, they have built the false narrative that pro-life laws kill women.

However, we really should be paying attention to the ‘man behind the curtain,’ so to speak. What’s hidden behind that curtain is this fact: Regardless of the state or its abortion laws, most pregnancy-related deaths are classified as “preventable.”

At a Glance:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources have long known that most pregnancy-related deaths are classified as “preventable,” yet pro-abortion media is using this term for shock value in its reporting on individual deaths.
• Collectively, 80% (or four in five) of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are determined to be “preventable,” says the CDC.
• Even in pro-abortion states, the vast majority of pregnancy-related deaths have been deemed “preventable.” Pro-abortion media have ignored this.
• The “leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related death,” at 23%, is “mental health conditions” (including suicides and overdoses/poisoning related to substance abuse). Pro-abortion media ignored this cause, because its goal was not to prevent more “preventable” deaths. Its goal was to find specific cases they could use in an attempt to end laws that protect the most innocent and defenseless humans in society.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted in 2022 that “four in five pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable” (emphasis added) — which accounts for 80% of these deaths nationwide. And Dr. Catherine Spong at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center told Boise State Public Radio the same in 2023 — that most maternal deaths are deemed preventable by state review committees.

Both the CDC and Spong also noted the varied causes of pregnancy-related deaths. The “leading underlying causes of pregnancy-related death,” according to the CDC, include:

• Mental health conditions (including deaths to suicide and overdose/poisoning related to substance use disorder) (23%)
• Excessive bleeding (hemorrhage) (14%)
• Cardiac and coronary conditions (relating to the heart) (13%)
• Infection (9%)
• Thrombotic embolism (a type of blood clot) (9%)
• Cardiomyopathy (a disease of the heart muscle) (9%)
• Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (relating to high blood pressure) (7%)

Yet these facts are only reported by the pro-abortion media when it suits them; when it doesn’t, the media deliberately sensationalizes preventable pregnancy-related deaths to push the deceptive narrative of the day. Currently, that narrative is that ‘pro-life laws are causing women to die.’

The false rhetoric is intended to cause a collective ‘gasp’ across the U.S. that will, if it works as intended, emotionally affect compassionate Americans so deeply that they will vote to protect the intentional killing of preborn babies, and not the babies themselves.

Preventable maternal deaths in the headlines

Amber Thurman, Candi Miller, Porsha Ngumezi, Josseli Barnica, and Nevaeh Crain all died tragic and preventable deaths in states that had previously or have since enacted pro-life laws.

Though none of their deaths were provably connected to the legality of abortion in their respective home states of Georgia and Texas, ProPublica and other media outlets presented them as such, exploiting the tragic loss of their lives.

Though these deaths in Georgia and Texas were determined (by certain individuals selected by Pro-Publica) to have been “preventable,” the claim that these women died because of pro-life laws is a spurious one based largely on assumptions. None of the doctors or medical staff involved in their care were prevented by law from providing these women with the known standard of care for the medical circumstances they each faced. Nor were they prevented from acting within their reasonable medical judgment in any given situation. And yet, it appears that in most cases, the standard of care was not followed.

Georgia defines “abortion” as follows:

“Abortion” means the act of using, prescribing, or administering any instrument, substance, device, or other means with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy with knowledge that termination will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of an unborn child; provided, however, that any such act shall not be considered an abortion if the act is performed with the purpose of:

• • (A) Removing a dead unborn child caused by spontaneous abortion; or

• • (B) Removing an ectopic pregnancy.

It also states, “In conducting an abortion, if the child is capable of sustained life, medical aid then available shall be rendered,” and adds that an act is not an abortion if it “results in the accidental or unintentional injury to or death of an unborn child…” (emphasis added)

Texas defines “abortion” as (emphasis added):

… the act of using or prescribing an instrument, a drug, a medicine, or any other substance, device, or means with the intent to cause the death of an unborn child of a woman known to be pregnant. The term does not include birth control devices or oral contraceptives. An act is not an abortion if the act is done with the intent to:

(A) save the life or preserve the health of an unborn child;

(B) remove a dead, unborn child whose death was caused by spontaneous abortion; or

(C) remove an ectopic pregnancy.

So why would ProPublica deceive the public about these women’s deaths? Why would it insinuate that medical professionals, who follow hospital policies, rules, as well as state and federal laws every day of their careers, are somehow incapable of understanding a state law that dictates that they cannot directly and intentionally kill children in the womb?

Perhaps the goal is to gain the compassion of millions of horrified Americans, who might be convinced that induced abortion is vital to women’s health and must be legal throughout pregnancy in order to save the lives of women facing pregnancy-related health emergencies.

Preventable pregnancy-related deaths happen everywhere… and even happened under Roe

Other than the fact that a pregnancy can end without intentionally killing a baby before delivery, there’s another glaringly obvious problem: these same preventable pregnancy-related deaths occur in every single state, including those that allow virtually unrestricted abortion.

In an example of honest journalism, the Associated Press recently admitted that women tragically die in both pro-life and pro-abortion states from causes deemed “preventable.” Preventable pregnancy deaths occurred under Roe and they are still happening in pro-abortion states today. In fact, the number of women dying in the U.S. from pregnancy-related causes more than doubled in the 20 years between 1999 and 2019 — during the reign of Roe v. Wade — according to a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The legal ability to kill preborn children existed, yet pregnancy-related deaths increased. Interestingly, pro-abortion media were not attempting to associate these deaths with the availability of legal abortion, and it is no different today.

The CDC defines a pregnancy-related death as “the death of a woman during pregnancy or within one year of the end of pregnancy from a pregnancy complication, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy.” These complications can happen anywhere.

Most states have a Maternal Mortality Review Committee that acts to analyze the deaths of pregnant women (or women recently pregnant) to determine if the deaths were pregnancy-related and preventable. According to Connecticut’s committee, “The purpose of the Committee’s review is to determine the causes of maternal mortality … and identify both medical and non-medical interventions to improve systems of care.” These committees existed under Roe as well, regardless of the state, to analyze all pregnancy-associated deaths, to determine if they were related to the pregnancy specifically, to note the causes of those deaths, and to create recommendations to prevent future deaths.

Ignoring “preventable” deaths in pro-abortion states… and downplaying a serious problem

From 2018 to 2020, two states — pro-life Georgia and pro-abortion Illinois — saw the same number of pregnancy-related deaths: 113.

In Georgia (population 11.1 million), where the law today protects most preborn children from abortion, there were 113 pregnancy-related deaths from 2018 through 2020 — before the state’s LIFE Act was in effect. 101 of those deaths had at least some chance of being prevented. That’s 89% that the committee deemed “preventable” (without the pro-life law in place).

In Illinois (population 12.5 million), where abortion is reportedly restricted at “fetal viability” but also allowed after that point for the broad “life or health” of the mother, 113 women also died from pregnancy-related deaths between 2018 and 2020. The committee found that 91% of those deaths were “potentially preventable due to clinical, system, social, community, or patient factors.” This means about 102 of those 113 maternal deaths in Illinois from 2018 to 2020 were considered preventable.

Here we have two different states with the same number of pregnancy-related deaths — but the pro-abortion state had the higher percentage of deaths determined to be preventable.

In pro-abortion New York (population 19.4 million), there were 121 pregnancy-related deaths between 2018 and 2020, and 73.6% were deemed to be “preventable.”

In abortion-friendly New Jersey (population 9.3 million), it was determined that there were 44 pregnancy-related deaths between 2016 and 2018. Of those, 91% were deemed “preventable.”

In pro-abortion California (population 38.8 million) — a state working overtime to promote itself as an abortion destination, there were 135 pregnancy-related deaths between 2018 and 2020. Eighty percent (80%) were deemed “preventable.” Demi Dominguez was one of them. She and her baby boy died, and her family sued the California hospital, saying that their deaths were preventable. California has seen an increase in maternal deaths in recent years, and the closure of numerous labor and delivery units. But the state’s plan to reverse that increase focuses on spreading awareness about the factors that contribute to pregnancy-related deaths and helping women understand their personal risks, instead of merely promoting more abortion.

Meanwhile, in pro-life Idaho (population 1.9 million), 17 women died while pregnant or within one year of pregnancy in 2021, and 16 of them (94%) were deemed “preventable,” with only nine of them being labeled as pregnancy-related. According to the state’s maternal mortality review (emphasis added):

[The] most common contributing factor in these women’s deaths was lack of knowledge regarding importance of event. The provider or patient did not receive adequate education or lacked knowledge or understanding regarding the significance of a health event or the need for treatment/follow-up after evaluation for a health event. … The most common underlying cause of death was mental health conditions, which includes deaths related to suicide, substance use disorder, overdose/poisoning, and unintentional injuries determined … to be related to a mental health condition. This was followed by infection and amniotic fluid embolism.

The Idaho report goes so far as to say, “It is important to remember that a maternal mortality review is not: A mechanism to assign blame or responsibility for any death.”

Yet ProPublica has been quick to (wrongly) blame pro-life laws. It even obtained information about Josseli Barnica’s 2021 death and had its own selected experts analyze it before Texas’ maternal mortality review committee had even completed its review of 2021 deaths.

“Reporters scoured death data, flagging Barnica’s case for its concerning cause of death: ‘sepsis’ involving ‘products of conception.’ We tracked down her family, obtained autopsy and hospital records and enlisted a range of experts to review a summary of her care that ProPublica created in consultation with two doctors,” the outlet reported.

It is clear that ProPublica is exploiting the deaths of women to provoke shock and horror among readers. After the outlet released its reports on Thurman and Miller, who died in Georgia, Georgia fired its entire maternal mortality review committee for the confidentiality breach, and ProPublica admitted that Thurman and Miller were not the only two women who died from “preventable” pregnancy-related deaths in the state.

Substandard and negligent care unfortunately exists in every state, regardless of laws. ProPublica ignores all of the preventable deaths in pro-abortion states and failed to seek out and expose such deaths prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It is clear that ProPublica’s goal was not to help women, or to prevent maternal deaths; ProPublica did indeed set out to “scour” records looking only for “preventable” deaths that it felt it could blame on pro-life laws to gain voter support for ending laws protecting preborn children.

It did not care about helping women, nor did it care to discuss the tragic deaths of other mothers from suicide or drug addiction. Instead, it has exploited women’s deaths in order to bring about more death.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]