Another woman has been killed by Republican abortion bans that are sold under the misnomer “pro-life” as a pregnant teenager died trying to get medical care in Texas.
The teenager, Nevaeh Crain who was six months pregnant, made three visits to emergency rooms in Texas within a 20 hour span, and still she died, ProPublica reported on Friday.
Candace Fails screamed for someone in the Texas hospital to help her pregnant daughter. âDo something,â she pleaded, on the morning of Oct. 29, 2023.
Nevaeh’s story is harrowing, tragic and an outrage.
The day of her baby shower, Nevaeh was feverish and vomiting. Crying in pain and too weak to walk, she also had blood running down her thighs.
But these symptoms were not enough to get her care. In fact, the first hospital didn’t even investigate her “sharp abdominal cramps,” instead diagnosing her with… strep throat.
A pause while we acknowledge that medical personnel are less afraid of being accused of medical malpractice than they are of helping a pregnant woman in distress in Texas.
She tested positive for sepsis at the second hospital, which ProPublica notes is “a life-threatening and fast-moving reaction to an infection, medical records show.”
Sepsis is widely acknowledged as a life-threatening medical emergency that can progress rapidly. It can lead to organ failure and death and thus needs to be treated promptly.
But the doctors said the fetus had a heartbeat, so she was fine to leave. In other words, the fetus has a heartbeat, so her life was rendered irrelevant by Texas abortion law.
On her third and last trip, the doctor insisted on doing not one but two ultrasounds to confirm that the fetus was nonviable BEFORE moving her to ICU.
She died hours later.
Abortion care is healthcare. Republicans are killing women and girls with their abortion bans. This was all predictable and knowable in advance; abortion is considered a human right.
If a law results in death and it is kept on the books, is it an act of depraved indifference to human life?
What does it mean to be “pro-life” if the movement does not care about the actual lives of pregnant girls and women?
Crain is not the only woman to die in Texas from their abortion ban. “Crain is one of at least two Texas women who died under the state abortion ban. Josseli Barnica died after a miscarriage in 2021,” ProPublica pointed out.
The medical community warned that death and torture would result from abortion bans, but Republicans refused to listen. Why? Why do they only care about a fetus that can ask nothing of them, while they have callous indifference to the death and torture of pregnant girls and women?
If Republicans really cared about fetuses, they would pass laws to help pregnant teens and women financially and in other ways. But instead, they focus solely on a fetus that can’t ask for anything, and once born they set about trying to take away school lunches and programs for single mothers.
The legal definition of murder is “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.” These laws are premeditated. The people passing them have been made aware of the consequences. In fact, conservatives on the Supreme Court enabled these deaths and have expressed no concern with their ruling. Should willfully causing the deaths of multiple women be disqualifying for a justice?
Republicans Donald Trump and JD Vance talk out of both sides of their mouths about abortion because they need to appease their base while not alienating suburban women, but Donald Trump brags about the overturning of Roe and Vance says it had to happen because women were “celebrating” (their right to live) under Roe.
As for their supporters, what kind of movement kills girls and women in the name of being “pro-life” and doesn’t ever stop to ask themselves if they’ve been lied to.
These women matter. Their lives matter.
These laws look a lot like premeditated murder and anyone supporting them still definitely supports the killing of pregnant girls and women.
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.