Shocking Revelation: Disturbing Rise in Infant Mortality Following Controversial Texas Abortion Law!

CNN
—

Texas’ abortion restrictions, some of the strictest in the country, may be causing a surge in infant mortality as women are forced to carry non-viable pregnancies to term.

Some 2,200 babies died in Texas in 2022, an increase of 227 deaths, or 11.5%, from the previous year, according to preliminary infant mortality data from the Texas Department of State Health Services obtained by CNN via a public records request. Infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects increased by 21.6%. That spike reversed a decline of nearly a decade. Between 2014 and 2021, child deaths fell by almost 15%.

In 2021, Texas prohibited abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy. when the supreme court overturned federal abortion rights the following summer, a triggering law in the state banned all abortions except those intended to protect the life of the mother.

The increase in deaths could be explained in part by the fact that more babies are being born in Texas. One recent report found that in the last nine months of 2022, the state saw nearly 10,000 more births than expected before the abortion ban, an estimated 3% increase.

But several obstetricians and gynecologists who focus on high-risk pregnancies told CNN that Texas’ strict abortion laws likely contributed to the rise in infant deaths.

“We all knew that the infant mortality rate would go up, because a lot of these terminations were for pregnancies that didn’t develop into normal, healthy children,” said Dr. Erika Werner, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts Medical Center. “That’s exactly what we were all worried about.”

The issue of forcing women to carry out terminal and often high-risk pregnancies is at the center of a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, with several women, who suffered difficult pregnancies or infant deaths shortly after giving birth. to birth, testifying in Travis County. cut this week.

One witness became so emotional while testifying Wednesday that she started vomiting on the witness stand.

After the court called a recess, she explained that the reaction is a response to the emotional trauma she endured: “I throw up when certain parts happen that make my body remember.”

Another sobbed as she described being afraid to visit a Texas doctor after receiving an out-of-state abortion. A third of her spoke tearfully about waiting for her baby’s heart to stop beating so doctors could give her a desperately needed abortion.

Before the recent restrictions on abortion, Texas prohibited the procedure after 20 weeks. This law gave parents more time to learn crucial information about fetal brain formation and organ development, which doctors begin to assess at around 15 weeks.

Samantha Casiano, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed against Texas, wished she had more time to make the decision.

“If I could have had an abortion in that time, I think it would have meant a lot to me because my daughter wouldn’t have suffered,” Casiano told CNN after testifying Wednesday.

When Casiano was 20 weeks pregnant, a routine scan revealed devastating news: her baby would be stillborn or die shortly after birth.

The fetus had anencephaly, a rare birth defect that prevents the brain and skull from developing during pregnancy. Babies with this condition are often stillborn, although they sometimes live for a few hours or days. Many women across the country facing the prospect are choosing abortion, two obstetricians and gynecologists told CNN.

But Casiano lived in Texas, where state legislators recently banned most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. He couldn’t afford to travel out of state for the procedure.

“You have no options. You will have to move forward with your pregnancy,” Casiano’s doctor told him, he claimed in the lawsuit.

In March, Casiano gave birth to their daughter Halo. After gasping for air for four hours, the baby died, Casiano said during his testimony Wednesday.

“All I could do was fight to get air. I had to watch my daughter go from pink to red to purple. From being warm to cold,” Casiano said. “I kept telling myself and my baby that I’m so sorry this happened to you.”

Casiano and 14 others, including two doctors, are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They allege that the ban on abortion has denied them or their patients access to necessary obstetric care. The plaintiffs are asking the courts to clarify when doctors can make medical exceptions to the state ban.

Casiano and two other plaintiffs testified Wednesday hoping to deliver healthy babies, but instead learned their lives or pregnancies were in danger.

“This was supposed to be a scanning day,” Casiano told the court. “It escalated until I found out my daughter was going to die.”

Lawyers representing the state argued Wednesday that the plaintiffs’ doctors were at fault, saying they misinterpreted the law and failed to provide adequate care for such high-risk pregnancies.

“Plaintiffs will not and cannot provide any evidence that any medical provider in the state of Texas is prosecuted or penalized for performing an abortion using the emergency medical exemption,” an attorney said during the state’s opening statement.

Kylie Beaton, another plaintiff, also had to watch her baby die. Beaton, who did not testify this week, learned during a 20-week scan that something was wrong with her baby’s brain, according to her lawsuit.

The doctor diagnosed the fetus with alobar holoprosencephaly, a condition in which the two hemispheres of the brain do not divide correctly. Babies with this condition are often stillborn or die shortly after birth.

Beaton’s doctor told her that he could not perform an abortion unless she was seriously ill or the fetus’s heart stopped. Beaton and her husband sought an abortion out of state. However, the fetus’s head was enlarged due to her condition, and the only clinic that performed an abortion charged up to $15,000. Beaton and her husband couldn’t afford it.

Instead, Beaton gave birth to a son she named Grant. The baby was constantly crying, not eating and unable to stand upright for fear of putting too much pressure on its head, according to the suit. Four days later, Grant died.

Experts say abortion bans in states like Texas increase the risk for both babies and mothers.

Maternal mortality has long been a top concern for doctors and health rights activists. Even before the Supreme Court decision, the United States had the highest maternal mortality rate among wealthy nations, A study found.

Amanda Zurawski, the lawsuit lead plaintiff, testified Wednesday that her water broke at 18 weeks pregnant, putting her at high risk of a life-threatening infection. Zurawski’s baby probably wouldn’t survive.

But the fetus still had a heartbeat, so the doctors said they couldn’t terminate the pregnancy. She received an emergency abortion only after her condition worsened and she went into septic shock.

Zurawski described during Wednesday’s hearing how her family visited the hospital, fearing it was the last time they would see her. Zurawski has argued that if she had been able to have an abortion, her life would not have been in danger in the same way.

“I blame the people who support these bans,” Zurawski said.

zurawski previously mentioned The language in Texas abortion laws is “incredibly vague, leaving doctors grappling with what they can and can’t do, what medical care they can and can’t provide.”

Pregnancy is dangerous, and forcing a woman to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term is unnecessarily risky when it’s clear the baby won’t survive, argued Dr. Mae-Lan Winchester, an Ohio-based maternal-fetal medicine specialist.

“Pregnancy is one of the most dangerous things a person will go through,” Winchester said. “Exposing yourself to that risk without any benefit of bringing a baby home at the end, is… risking maternal morbidity and mortality for nothing.”