ProPublica Wins Pulitzer for Reporting on Deaths Caused by Abortion Bans

Since Dobbs, ProPublica has been essential to understanding the ongoing crisis within our medical system and arming advocates and lawmakers alike with the context and evidence necessary to fight for change.

By Kylie Cheung | May 6, 2025 | 2:07pm

Photo: Getty Images Abortion Latest

ProPublica Wins Pulitzer for Reporting on Deaths Caused by Abortion Bans

For a second year in a row, ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, this time for the outlet’s harrowing series on the impacts of abortion bans on maternal mortality. “Life of the Mother” exposed how so-called “life of the mother” exceptions have made it almost impossible for doctors to provide time-sensitive, emergency abortion care; the consequences of this, as ProPublica’s reporting has shown, can be life or death.

It’s hard to think of any publication more deserving of this honor at this particular moment. In September and October, ProPublica reported on the deaths of five women—three in Texas(Porsha Ngumezi, Josseli Barnica, and Nevaeh Crain) and two in Georgia (Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller)—whose deaths were confirmed to be a result of not receiving emergency abortion care due to their state’s respective abortion bans. The three women in Texas were denied emergency abortions for complications with their miscarriages, resulting in fatal sepsis infections; in Georgia, Thurman and Miller experienced complications upon taking medication abortion, and were unable to get emergency abortion procedures in a timely manner, which could have saved their lives.

Most Popular

ProPublica reporters Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, and Cassandra Jaramillo mined hospital and death records in abortion-banned states, used crowdsourcing tips, and interviewed health workers and maternal health researchers across the country, as well as the victims’ surviving family members. Their reporting paints a chilling portrait of an increasingly anti-abortion health system in which medical professionals must choose between their oaths and the law.

“We knew early that abortion bans were likely to have deadly consequences for women, and not just those seeking abortions,” Tracy Weber, ProPublica’s managing editor for the national staff, said on Monday. “Our reporters and their editor, Alex Zayas, were endlessly creative, dogged, humane and careful in surfacing the deaths of these women when the states themselves were not looking. We are so honored that the Pulitzer Board has recognized their efforts.”

In November, ProPublica also reported that Georgia disbanded its entire maternal mortality committee. Their dismissal was retaliation by the state for committee members anonymously sharing Miller and Thurman’s cases with the outlet.

Meanwhile, Texas also announced in November that its maternal mortality committee would not analyze mortality data from 2022 to 2023—the first years after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Before that, in 2023, Idaho allowed its maternal mortality review committee legislation to expire, which effectively disbanded the committee. Eventually, following public outrage, the state reestablished the committee earlier this year, but only appointed members to fill it earlier this month, substantially delaying the committee’s ability to report this data.

Sans the vital, bipartisan work of state maternal review committees, outlets like ProPublica are almost single-handedly shining light on the toll of these laws. The outlet’s reporting on abortion-banned deaths even sparked a U.S. Senate investigation in 2024 that determined hospitals are insufficiently providing guidance to their doctors about how to navigate abortion restrictions. States like Texas have since attempted to respond to reports on the maternal mortality crisis inflicted by their laws by introducing bills like SB 31, the so-called “Life of the Mother Act,” which, as ProPublica’s follow-up reporting in March highlighted, would do nothing but place pregnant people at further risk.

In April, the Gender Equity Policy Institute reported that mothers living in states that banned abortion are “nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or soon after giving birth, compared to mothers living in supportive states where abortion was legal and accessible.” Drawing from the CDC’s maternal mortality data from 2019 through 2023, which is the most recent full-year data set available, the report found that maternal health is improving in states where abortion care remains legal: Maternal mortality fell by 21% in those states in the first full year after Dobbs. In 2023, mothers’ risk of maternal death in Texas was 155% higher than in California. So, for anyone wondering what might be driving these numbers, ProPublica’s reporting on what’s happening in hospitals in abortion-banned states certainly provides some vital insights.

The outlet previously received Pulitzers for public service in 2024, national reporting in 2020, feature writing in 2019, public service in 2017, explanatory reporting in 2016, national reporting in 2011, and investigative reporting in 2010.

Like what you just read? You’ve got great taste. Subscribe to Jezebel, and for $5 a month or $50 a year, you’ll get access to a bunch of subscriber benefits, including getting to read the next article (and all the ones after that) ad-free. Plus, you’ll be supporting independent journalism—which, can you even imagine not supporting independent journalism in times like these? Yikes.