Days after Texas banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a woman died after a doctor in the state delayed treatment for a miscarriage by 40 hours, ProPublica reported Wednesday.
Experts told ProPublica that the death of 28-year-old mother Joseli Varnica in September 2021 was “preventable.” Varnica is the third woman ProPublica has reported to have died in recent years due to lack of access to legal abortion or delayed treatment.
U.S. abortion laws, enacted by more than a dozen states in the two years since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, technically allow abortions to be performed in medical emergencies, but doctors across the country They stated that the wording of the law was so vague that it was difficult to understand its proper content. I don’t know when legal intervention will be possible. Instead, many doctors say they are forced to wait until patients are on the brink of death and then try to pull them back.
According to ProPublica, Bernica went to the hospital on September 2, 2021, a day after Texas’ six-week abortion ban went into effect, when she was just over 17 weeks pregnant with a seizure. (Texas enacted the ban nearly a year before Roe was overturned and now bans abortions during pregnancy.) When the bleeding worsened the next day, Bernica returned to the hospital. However, doctors concluded that the miscarriage was “in progress.” Another soon concluded that miscarriage was “inevitable.”
ProPublica reported that Ms. Varnika’s cervix was dilated to nearly 9 centimeters, making her susceptible to fast-acting infections. Typically, in cases like Varnica’s, doctors prescribe drugs to speed up labor or perform procedures to empty the uterus.
However, Varnika’s fetus still had a heartbeat. And under Texas’ ban, doctors could not intervene unless a “medical emergency” (a term not defined by law) occurred.
About 40 hours after Varnika arrived at the hospital for the second time, doctors were unable to detect a heartbeat in the fetus, the report said. Doctors used drugs to stimulate labor and delivered Varnika’s fetus. However, after returning home, Varnika’s bleeding continued and got worse.
Within days, she returned to the hospital, where she died of sepsis caused by “products of conception,” according to the autopsy report. The widow’s husband is currently raising their 4-year-old daughter, ProPublica reported.
Several experts, including an obstetrician-gynecologist and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, told ProPublica that delaying Varnica’s treatment violates medical standards because of the risk of infection. They told the outlet that Bernica might have survived if she had been given the option sooner.
Doctors involved in Varnica’s case did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. HCA Healthcare, the hospital chain that treated Varnica, said in a statement that doctors used independent judgment and that “our responsibility is to comply with applicable state and federal laws and regulations.” told Publica.
As support for abortion rights has surged in the years since Roe’s ouster, and dozens of women have come forward to say they were denied medically necessary care, the impact of a ban on abortion and its prohibited procedures has weighed on the U.S. president. It has become one of the most important issues in the election. Kamala Harris has made abortion rights a key pillar of her platform, but Donald Trump and other Republicans have tried to avoid discussion of abortion rights or glossed over the issue. I’m trying to turn it over.
“My heart breaks for the Bernica family,” U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas, who is running for Senate, wrote on X on Wednesday. Allred is running against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, an avowed opponent of abortion, and has made abortion rights a centerpiece of his campaign. “Josely Varnica would be alive today, but because of Ted Cruz’s cruel abortion ban, women in Texas were denied the life-saving medical care they needed. Ted Cruz We cannot afford to continue this for another six years.”
Cruz has recently remained silent about abortion. He declined ProPublica’s request for comment, as did Texas Governor Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.
In the weeks since ProPublica first reported on Amber Nicole Thurman and Candy Miller, two Georgia women who died after being unable to access legal abortions in their home state, President Trump also They have largely avoided commenting on their specific cases. But during a Fox News town hall, host Harris Faulkner told President Trump that Thurman’s family was holding a press conference.
President Trump joked, “I promise you’ll get a better rating.” The crowd laughed.
