A new investigation from ProPublica revealed significant disparities in sepsis rates for women experiencing miscarriage complications in Texas, reflecting hospitals’ differing approaches to interpreting the state’s strict abortion ban.
The report, published May 7, is based on interviews with 22 physicians in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas regarding policies at 10 healthcare organizations covering 75% of births and pregnancy-loss hospitalizations in those cities. ProPublica also analyzed sepsis rates in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations by comparing data from before and after the Texas abortion ban took effect in 2021, examining about 2,700 cases in each region over two nine-quarter periods.
Four things to know:
1. The report builds on a previous analysis from ProPublica, which found that sepsis rates increased more than 50% for women hospitalized after losing their pregnancies in the second trimester. The new analysis shows sepsis rates varied significantly between Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
2. Rates of the life-threatening compilation jumped 29% in Dallas-Forth Worth and 63% in Houston, likely due to differences in how local hospitals responded to Texas’ abortion ban, which permits the procedure only during life-threatening emergencies.
3. Many Dallas-Fort Worth hospitals encouraged physicians to intervene before a woman’s condition worsened, while hospitals in Houston often encouraged physicians to withhold treatment until they could document patients’ life-threatening conditions to avoid criminal penalties.
4. ProPublic said its analysis is the first to link disparate hospital policies to patient outcomes.
“When a state law is unclear and punitive, how an institution interprets it can make all the difference for patients,” the publication said.
Read the full article here.