America’s already-dreadful maternal mortality rate looks set to rise

The young woman’s waters broke when she was 19 weeks pregnant. The doctors told her the baby stood no chance of surviving, but that if the pregnancy continued the woman risked an infection, which might lead to sepsis and kill her. They could not perform an abortion, though. Months earlier Texas, where she lived, had passed a law banning terminations after detection of a fetal heartbeat unless there was danger “of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function”. This wording worried the doctors: if they did an abortion while she still appeared healthy and the baby had a heartbeat, they could be prosecuted. They suggested she fly to Colorado instead.