1/ At 17 weeks pregnant, Emily Waldorf was suddenly faced with a life-threatening situation: Her baby’s foot was dipping out of her cervix.
Doctors told her the longer her cervix stayed open, the higher her risk of infection.
They knew how to treat her. There was one issue…🧵
2/ The standard of care would be to empty her womb. But the baby still had a detectable heartbeat, and stopping it would run afoul of Arkansas’ abortion ban.
They needed to wait until she went into labor or showed signs of dangerous infection, or until the fetal heartbeat ended.
3/ Texas, another abortion ban state, has amended its law to make clear that doctors don’t need to wait for infection in similar cases.
THREAD: Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside.
On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors.
She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section.
2/ The judge informed her that Florida had filed an emergency petition at the hospital’s behest — not out of concern for Doyley, but in the interest of her unborn child.
The hospital and state attorney’s office wanted to force Doyley to deliver via C-section.
3/ With no lawyer or advocate, Doyley defended herself from her hospital bed for the next 3 hours.
She was aware of doctors’ concerns about uterine rupture, a potentially deadly complication of a vaginal birth, but she said she understood the risk to be less than 2%.
1/ On yesterday’s @lastweektonight about USAID, John Oliver cited several of our investigations.
First up was our reporting about how DOGE operatives had arbitrarily cut aid programs, in some cases by literally clicking through a spreadsheet: propub.li/4bbPEXl
2/ Oliver later referred to our reporting about former USAID lead Peter Marocco.
Officials told us they saw Marocco’s gutting of the agency as a campaign of retribution against those who opposed his foreign policy agenda in the first Trump administration: propub.li/3N8HZBm
3/ Finally, Oliver brought up our reporting on how cuts to aid caused an American-made hunger crisis.
At one refugee camp, mothers had to choose which of their kids to feed & pregnant women were so desperate for calories that some resorted to eating mud: propub.li/40iWl59
1/ ProPublica collected handwritten letters in mid-January from children held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, the same facility where 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was taken.
Hundreds of kids are still detained. We’ll let the children’s words speak for themselves. 🧵
2/ “I miss my school and my friends I feel bad since when I came here to this Place, because I have been here too long.”
From 9-year-old Susej F, detained for 50+ days
3/ “I have never been separated from my siblings and its honestly sad because they are little and they need their mom and sister.”
From 14-year-old Ariana V.V, whose U.S.-citizen siblings are 2 and 5 years old. Detained for 45+ days
1/ Ciji Graham was the mother of 2-year-old SJ, a sister to 9 younger siblings, a beloved friend.
She's also the 7th case we’ve found of a pregnant woman in a state restricting abortion who died after being unable to access standard care.
This is her story.
2/ On Nov. 14, 2023, Ciji had a heart rate of 192 bpm.
She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat that put her at risk of heart failure or stroke. But this time, her usual treatment was just out of reach. propublica.org/article/north-…
3/ In the past, doctors had always been able to shock her heart back into rhythm.
After Ciji’s pregnancy test came back positive, however, her doctor sent her home without offering the procedure.
THREAD: It was supposed to be a routine surgery. So when the doctor stepped out, Sandra Parker wasn’t sure she heard right.
Her husband’s heart couldn’t have stopped for more than 5 or 6 minutes, the doctor was saying.
“That’s not a lot of time,” Mrs. Parker thought. “Is it?”
2/ Few people trusted Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital like Anthony Parker.
For much of the time he and his wife had lived in Albany, GA, he’d served on the board of directors, one of the few African Americans invited to do so.
Anthony, the hospital said, was “Phoebe Family.”
3/ Now, as Anthony lay in the hospital room, Mrs. Parker was trying to remind herself he was in good hands.