Abortion restrictions have made early miscarriage hazardous due to the hesitance among doctors to perform necessary dilation and curettage (D&C) procedures. As a result, women face heightened risks of life-threatening hemorrhage. Reports indicate significant increases in emergency room visits and blood transfusions following the abortion ban in Texas. A new data analysis reveals that from August 2022, after abortion was criminalized, blood transfusions for first-trimester miscarriages surged dramatically. This indicates the increasingly dangerous reality women face when experiencing miscarriage in abortion-restrictive states.
Before states banned abortion, one of the gravest outcomes of early miscarriage could easily be avoided: Doctors could offer a dilation and curettage procedure, which quickly empties the uterus and allows it to close, protecting against a life-threatening hemorrhage.
Reports now abound of doctors hesitating to provide them and women who are bleeding heavily being discharged from emergency rooms without care, only to return in such dire condition that they need blood transfusions to survive.
Now, a new ProPublica data analysis adds empirical weight to the mounting evidence that abortion bans have made the common experience of miscarriage - which occurs in up to 30% of pregnancies - far more dangerous.
After Texas made performing abortions a felony in August 2022, ProPublica found, the number of blood transfusions during emergency room visits for first-trimester miscarriage shot up by 54%.
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