How to Report Post-Dobbs Deaths
How to Report Post-Dobbs Deaths
The New Yorker reports that a woman has died—so why not call it what it is?
Today, The New Yorker published a heart-breaking piece about Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick, a 29 year-old woman who died a few weeks after Roe was overturned. In the headline, the magazine asks, “Did An Abortion Ban Cost a Young Texas Woman Her Life?”
The answer, without a doubt, is yes. So why is it so hard to say so?
Anyone who works in the abortion rights world knows that bans have killed multiple people since Roe was overturned. The public hasn’t heard their stories, though, because families understandably don’t want their loved ones’ lives and deaths picked apart by reporters and anti-abortion activists.
It’s only a matter of time, for example, before Republicans and conservative groups claim that Yeni’s death had nothing to do with Texas’ abortion ban. They’ll point to how the young woman could be inconsistent taking her hypertension medication, or the time she missed an appointment with a maternal fetal medicine specialist. They will find a way to blame her.
I really do have empathy for mainstream publications. One of the challenges in reporting these stories is that abortion bans don’t exist in a vacuum: they’re part of a broader system that fails women in multiple ways. Whether it’s health care costs, racial and gendered bias, maternal health deserts or the proliferation of religiously-affiliated hospitals—there are an infinite number of dangerous combinations that can contribute to deaths like Yeni’s.
But nuance doesn’t erase the obvious truth: Abortion bans kill. We have to be willing to say it.
Yeni would be alive if she was given an abortion. Yet this young woman with hypertension, diabetes and a history of pulmonary edema was never even talked to about ending her pregnancy. Not when she went to the emergency room of a Catholic hospital just 7 weeks into her pregnancy with breathing problems, not when she visited an affiliated OBGYN who told Yeni she was at risk of having a heart attack and stroke. Abortion wasn’t even mentioned when Yeni was so ill that she had to be transferred to a bigger hospital where records stated she was at “high risk for clinical decompensation/death.”
As OBGYN Joanne Stone, former president of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, told The New Yorker, “If she weren’t pregnant, she likely wouldn’t be dead.”
To be clear: reporter Stephania Taladrid does an exemplary job with this piece, and her investigation makes plain that Yeni’s death could have been prevented with an abortion. But the editors at The New Yorker did Taladrid’s work an injustice by framing that very obvious fact as a question.
I know how important it is to be precise and careful—especially with a story like this one. I understand wanting to preempt criticism. But what happened to Yeni isn’t debatable.
As more of these stories emerge, the anti-abortion movement will pressure the media to equivocate about what’s killing women. They’re desperate to muddy the waters and shirk blame—and they’ll use the nuances of pregnancy and healthcare to do it. We can’t let that happen.
When conservatives inevitably respond to this piece—and the many that will surely follow—with lies and obfuscation, please remind them of some of Yeni’s last words:
“I’m alone and scared.”
“Where is my mom.”
“I want to live.”
Following up on. my prior comment, how are these actions/laws not in violation of the following federal statute?:
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
In reading it, it appears to be related to employment but there has to be more extrapolated from the conditions of this Act. Would love to hear feedback from someone who has a legal background.
I keep hearing and reading comments like “Someday a woman is going to die..” or a mention of Savita Halappanavar and how the shock of her death led to change in Ireland. But in our non-communitarian and individualistic society, it’s easy for the misogynists to lay the blame on each individual woman rather than the system. Whenever I can, I point out that women ARE dying here. Women are 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy & childbirth in states with abortion bans. I like to post this link with my responses: https://thegepi.org/state-of-reproductive-health-united-states/