Hi Reader,
Emily Waldorf was 17 weeks pregnant when a doctor told her, “Your body is about to miscarry.”
Her cervix was dilated, it had opened too soon, and she was going to lose the daughter whose nursery she was just getting ready to decorate.
This news was both devastating and dangerous. Three doctors gathered in the hospital room and told Waldorf and her husband that the longer her cervix remained open and her uterus exposed to bacteria, the higher her risk of developing a life-threatening infection. The standard of care, they explained, would be to quickly empty her womb.
But they couldn’t do that, one doctor said apologetically, sighing deeply. Doing so would run afoul of the Arkansas state abortion ban. Legally, they said they could not intervene until she went into labor on her own or showed signs of a dangerous infection, or until the fetal heartbeat ended. Waldorf struggled to understand what the doctors were saying as waves of grief hit her.
She lay in a hospital bed for the next five days, waiting, worried that infection could enter her uterus at any moment. Trapped in a medical limbo, Waldorf took a nurse friend’s advice and began writing everything down. That journal, along with her medical records and interviews, offer a rare, harrowing account of how Arkansas’ abortion ban, not best practices or medical training, guided her doctors’ choices.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, our newsroom devoted a team of reporters to investigate the consequences. In the years since, ProPublica has become a leading source for Americans trying to understand the impact of abortion bans and to see who is being harmed when laws collide with medical reality. This was true for Waldorf, too. Scrolling through social media on her third night in the hospital, a headline caught her eye: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.” Our newsroom had just published an investigation on the death of Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old medical assistant who died of infection after doctors delayed emptying her uterus. Thurman left behind a 6-year-old son.
“Oh my god, it isn’t just me,” Waldorf thought. “But she died.”
Waldorf advocated for herself, fiercely. She spoke with the CEO of the hospital. She called the governor’s office. She got a lawyer. She ultimately insisted on leaving the state, riding in an ambulance to The University of Kansas Health System, where medical care was not governed by a state abortion ban. She survived. And she shared her story with ProPublica. I encourage you to read it.
The hospital told ProPublica it could not comment on Waldorf’s experience. The doctors also didn’t comment about her case.
As a ProPublica reader, you know that we investigate with purpose. Our reporting on the life-threatening consequences of state abortion bans has sparked urgent calls for change. Last year, the Texas Senate unanimously passed legislation that aims to prevent maternal deaths under the state’s strict abortion ban.
Texas clarified how its abortion ban should be applied in medical emergencies. But because abortion law is handled state by state, and there is no single federal standard requiring states to adopt that clarification, Arkansas has no obligation to follow Texas’ lead — or even to treat Texas’ changes as guidance. Arkansas calls itself the “most pro-life state in America.” Since its ban took effect, not one person living there has been granted a medically necessary abortion, according to the state’s public data.
Independent investigative journalism exists to uncover the human cost of government policies that might otherwise remain hidden. Your support makes it possible for ProPublica to expose the facts and bring hidden crises and preventable deaths into the national spotlight. Time and again, the difficult truths our journalists uncover have inspired people and policymakers to demand better.
Thanks to donations from folks like you, we’re growing larger and spurring more impact than ever before. Give today and help ensure that ProPublica continues to have the resources to follow the most important stories wherever they lead — for however long it takes.
Thanks so much,
Megan Martenyi
Proud ProPublican
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