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For Immediate Release: October 30, 2024
Contact: [email protected] | View Newsroom

Washington, D.C. – Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Charlotte Lozier Institute issued the following statements in response to abortion misinformation in ProPublica’s latest story.

“We mourn the tragic loss of Josseli Barnica. Her death was preventable. But let’s be crystal clear: Texas’ law and every pro-life state law calls on doctors to act in circumstances just like Josseli’s,” said SBA Pro-Life America’s State Policy Director Katie Daniel. “No pro-life laws prevent doctors from providing emergency care for expectant moms, they must intervene to save women’s lives – and in Texas, the numbers show that there are doctors who understand the law. Doctors who fail to provide necessary medical care should be held accountable.

“Lies to women about their pregnancy care are at the root of this tragic case. The law is clear, but the media and abortion advocates have created confusion where there should be none. Texas law, like pro-life laws in every other state, allows emergency care, miscarriage care and treatment for ectopic pregnancy. Claims that abortion laws prevent emergency care are precisely the problem. States like Texas, South Dakota and Florida are taking crucial steps to mitigate misinformation by educating doctors that they must exercise their reasonable medical judgment and intervene in life-threatening situations. But politicians and the media must also do their part.”

Ingrid Skop, M.D., FACOG, a board-certified ob-gyn who serves as vice president and director of medical affairs at Charlotte Lozier Institute, stated:

“As a board-certified ob-gyn practicing in Texas, I’m saddened to hear of Josseli Barnica’s tragic and preventable death. Based on the information publicly available, doctors should have immediately intervened when she presented to the hospital with an inevitable and incomplete miscarriage at 17 weeks’ gestation. Her physicians’ failure to intervene caused her death.

“Under Texas’ pro-life law, a physician may end a pregnancy, when, in his or her ‘reasonable medical judgment,’ a pregnancy complication places a woman in danger of ‘death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.’ The article even admits more than a dozen obstetric specialists who reviewed Josseli’s records agreed that her care violated professional medical standards. No physician has been prosecuted for performing an abortion for the life of the mother post-Dobbs. The pro-abortion lobby’s fearmongering paired with the lack of guidance from professional medical associations and hospitals are harming women.”

The Facts: Pro-Life Laws Protect Mothers and Babies

  • The Supreme Court of Texas unanimously ruled that Texas’ pro-life law has a clear ‘Life of the Mother’ exception to protect women which does not require “imminency” or that a woman be “about to die” before physicians can intervene. This exception has been Texas law for over a decade and was the standard prior to Roe v. Wade.
  • The Texas Medical Board (TMB) recently provided clarification stressing doctors’ ability to treat women with serious complications in pregnancy under the state’s abortion law.
  • Under every pro-life law, doctors must intervene to save women’s lives – and in states like Texas, the numbers show that they are doing so.
  • The laws are clear: No state law, including Texas’, prevents a hospital from treating a woman in a medical emergency. A D&C to remove an unborn child that has died, or dead pregnancy tissue, is not an abortion (let alone a “felony” or “criminalized”) in Texas or anywhere.
  • Both the Texas Heartbeat Act and the Texas Human Life Protection Act allow a physician to induce labor even if the baby’s heart is still beating if the physician believes, using his or her reasonable medical judgment, that it is necessary to prevent the death of or a substantial impairment to the mother. This would include acting to prevent a serious risk of sepsis, as should have been done in Josseli’s situation.
  • In a rebuke to the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. Supreme Court recently kept Texas’ pro-life law protecting unborn children and their mothers fully in effect, confirming that Texas’ pro-life law does not conflict with federal law. EMTALA, the federal law in question, requires hospitals to stabilize patients, including pregnant mothers and their unborn children, before they may be transferred or discharged.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is a network of more than one million pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.

Charlotte Lozier Institute was launched in 2011 as the education and research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. CLI is a hub for research and public policy analysis on some of the most pressing issues facing the United States and nations around the world. The Institute is named for a feminist physician known for her commitment to the sanctity of human life and equal career and educational opportunities for women.

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