Standard pregnancy care is now dangerously disrupted in Louisiana, report reveals

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In the wake of Louisiana's abortion ban, pregnant women have been given risky, unnecessary surgeries, denied swift treatment for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, and forced to wait until their life is at risk before getting an abortion, according to a new report first made available to NPR.

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In one of the most extreme examples of how pregnancy care has changed, doctors described cases of women who experienced preterm premature rupture of membranes (when the "water breaks" early in pregnancy, before the fetus is viable). Some of these women were forced to undergo Cesarean section surgeries to empty their uterus and avoid infection, instead of receiving an abortion procedure or medication.

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Describing one of these cases, Dr. Michele Heisler with Physicians for Human Rights explained that the C-section was done "to preserve the appearance of not doing an abortion."

The patient wasn't given a choice, she added.

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Physicians are also delaying treatment of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy out of fear of breaking the law, the report found — as previously reported in news stories from states operating under abortion bans. Ectopic pregnancies — when the embryo implants outside of the uterus — are never viable, and they can even be deadly.

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Louisiana already suffers from some of the highest rates of maternal mortality and morbidity in the nation.

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