In September 2021, 28-year-old Josseli Barnica was admitted to a Houston hospital with a miscarriage “in progress” at 17 weeks. Although her cervix was dilated and her uterus at risk of infection, doctors reportedly told her they could not intervene until the fetal heartbeat stopped due to Texas’s restrictive abortion laws. For 40 hours, Barnica remained untreated, developing a severe infection that led to her death three days later.
Medical experts, including more than a dozen OB-GYNs, reviewed Barnica’s records and deemed her death preventable. Standard care, they noted, would have allowed for an expedited delivery to prevent sepsis, but Texas’s laws left doctors hesitant to act. The law, which had just gone into effect, restricts intervention until the fetus is confirmed dead unless a vague “medical emergency” is clearly present—leaving providers wary of potential criminal penalties.
Barnica’s story is part of ProPublica’s investigation into how restrictive abortion laws in Texas and other states impact emergency maternal care. The state’s law poses a significant legal risk to doctors who treat miscarriages before fetal death, with potential penalties up to 99 years in prison.
As cases like Barnica’s emerge, Texas’s maternal health committee has yet to release specific guidance on handling these life-threatening situations, and her family is left grappling with the tragic consequences of the system’s limitations.
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