They Knew. And They Did Nothing.

They knew exactly what would happen. Before Texas banned abortion, doctors told them. Maternal health experts told them. The data from other countries told them. And then 120 women died anyway. 2 Let me tell you about the sepsis rate in Texas hospitals after the ban. It went up 50%. Not because of anything mysterious. Not because of some random tragedy. Because women with miscarriages were made to wait until their fetus died — or until they developed life-threatening infections — before doctors could intervene. Because the law said emptying a uterus to prevent sepsis is technically an abortion. 3 Dr. Lorie Harper, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in Austin, said it best: "This is exactly what we predicted would happen and exactly what we were afraid would happen." They were afraid. They knew. And they did it anyway. Now let me tell you what they did AFTER the data came out. 4 Texas has a maternal mortality review committee. Its job is to look at every pregnant woman who dies and figure out why. They looked at 2018. They looked at 2019. They looked at COVID years. They skipped 2022 and 2023. The years the abortion ban was in full effect. The years 120 women died in Texas hospitals who otherwise wouldn't have. The chair of the committee said they skipped those years to get a "more contemporary view." She added that the decision had "absolutely no nefarious intent." 5 Dr. Jonas Swartz, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University, responded to the decision: "The fact that Texas is not reviewing those years does a disservice to the 120 individuals you identified who died inpatient and were pregnant. And that is an underestimation of the number of people who died." Underestimation. The real number is probably higher. Because those are only the women who died IN the hospital. Not the ones who died in ambulances. Not the ones who went home, got sent away, and came back dying.