USA: Sepsis soared 50% after Texas banned abortions

After Texas banned abortion in 2021, sepsis rates increased more than 50% for women hospitalized after losing their pregnancies in the second trimester, according to a ProPublica analysis. 

The outlet previously reported on the deaths of three pregnant women who were denied timely care due to the state's restrictive abortion laws. In September, the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, which examines all pregnancy-related deaths, decided to not examine cases from 2022 to 2023 and instead review more recent deaths. 

In a first-of-its-kind data analysis, ProPublica found that, compared to prepandemic years, dozens more pregnant and postpartum women died in Texas hospitals. 

When abortion was legal in the state, the sepsis rate hovered at about 2.9%. After abortion was banned, the rate of sepsis increased to 4.9%. 

Texas outlaws abortion with the exception of medical emergency cases, but healthcare providers in the state have expressed confusion and hesitance about the exception's parameters. Some physicians have said their hospitals do not allow them to empty the uterus — the standard of care for patients miscarrying in the second trimester — until they can diagnose a life-threatening complication or the fetal heartbeat stops. 

This sepsis risk increase was most striking for patients whose fetus may have had a heartbeat when they entered the hospital, ProPublica reported.

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Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 20 February 2025