ProPublica’s analysis of CDC data found that almost 200 women died after an ectopic pregnancy from 2020 to 2025, compared with about 100 in the previous six years.
asserted
women → find → years
Abortion bans make exceptions for ectopic pregnancies, but getting a definitive diagnosis can mean waiting days or even weeks, while the risk of rupture and death rises.
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risk → make → rupture
The Department of Health and Human Services has drastically cut maternal health staffers and grant funding.
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Department → cut → staffers
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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who → write → story
The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found.
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analysis → die → years
The mounting deaths in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have drawn little scrutiny or response.
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deaths → mount → scrutiny
Such deaths typically occur in the first trimester, after a pregnancy fails to properly implant in the uterus and begins to develop elsewhere, most commonly inside a fallopian tube.
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pregnancy → occur → tube
The embryo grows until it causes the organ to rupture, triggering catastrophic bleeding.
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organ → grow → bleeding
With prompt and appropriate medical care, maternal health experts say, women should not die.
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women → say → care
Yet ProPublica’s analysis found a stark and baffling increase: Almost 200 women with the condition died from 2020 to 2025, compared with about 100 in the previous six years.
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women → find → years
“A death related to ectopic pregnancy should really be a never event,” said Dr. Alice Abernathy, an OB-GYN in Philadelphia.
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Abernathy → relate → Philadelphia
While chaos and access issues at hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic likely contributed to at least some of the deaths, the surge has persisted, raising serious questions about the role of the most significant disruption to maternal healthcare in the years since: state restrictions on abortion.
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surge → contribute → abortion
To treat an ectopic pregnancy, which is almost never viable, doctors must terminate it.
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doctors → treat → it
But lawsuits and federal complaints have alleged that some medical providers are hesitating or flat-out refusing to do that in states where they face criminal penalties for performing an abortion.
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they → allege → abortion
Patients described their terror.
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Patients → describe → terror
“I genuinely thought I was going to die,” said Kyleigh Thurman, whose right fallopian tube ruptured after she struggled to get ectopic care in Texas in 2023.
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she → think → 2023
“There were a few times I asked my husband if I was going to die,” Leitaea Lowrimore of Oklahoma said in a lawsuit after being denied treatment for an ectopic pregnancy at multiple hospitals in February.
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Lowrimore → be → February
“I kept thinking about our kids.”
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I → keep → kids
To determine whether these issues go beyond anecdotes, ProPublica analyzed the data collected from every state by the CDC to look for patterns.
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ProPublica → determine → patterns
The analysis shows a growing divide for women in states with strict abortion bans compared with those without.
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analysis → show → those
While the uptick in ectopic deaths occurred nationwide, the climb has been much steeper in states that banned abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
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Court → occur → 2022
ProPublica shared its analysis with more than a dozen maternal health experts, including leaders in the field, who were unaware of the spike; early pregnancy complications are chronically underresearched.
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complications → share → spike
While they cautioned that abortion bans alone can’t explain the national rise, maternal health experts said any examination of the spike should include the documented delays in care caused by the laws, including for ectopic pregnancies.
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examination → caution → pregnancies
In Thurman’s case, despite clear signs of an ectopic pregnancy, two emergency departments sent her home without resolving the complication.
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departments → send → complication
Regulators in 2025 found that one of the hospitals, Ascension Seton Williamson, failed to properly screen Thurman for a suspected ectopic pregnancy and did not call in an OB-GYN, in violation of the hospital’s own policies and federal law that requires emergency departments to treat and stabilize patients before discharging them.
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that → find → them
Thurman has an ongoing lawsuit against Ascension Seton Williamson and the other hospital, Ascension Seton Highland Lakes, for medical malpractice.
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Thurman → have → malpractice
Thurman had to have her fallopian tube removed after it ruptured.
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it → have → ?
(Thurman is not related to Amber Thurman, who died in Georgia, which also has an abortion ban, after doctors delayed treating different pregnancy complications in 2022.)
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doctors → relate → 2022
“I’ve never been in a situation where I didn’t get healthcare when I needed it,” Thurman told ProPublica, comparing the condition to having “a time bomb you can’t control.”
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you → get → bomb
A spokesperson for the Ascension Seton hospitals said in a statement, “When a patient experiences a serious or life-threatening condition during pregnancy, our clinicians provide medically indicated treatment, including treatment for an ectopic pregnancy.”
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clinicians → say → pregnancy
The hospital has denied Thurman’s malpractice allegations in a court filing.
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hospital → deny → filing
Ectopic pregnancies, while rare, have long been recognized as the leading cause of maternal deaths in the first trimester.
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pregnancies → recognize → trimester
The condition impacts up to 2% of pregnancies in the U.S.
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condition → impact → U.S.
Because government agencies don’t require hospitals to track or report overall ectopic diagnoses, it is impossible to know whether the condition itself is becoming more common.
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condition → require → diagnoses
While rates for other pregnancy-related deaths also increased during the pandemic, those climbs have largely subsided.
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climbs → relate → pandemic
Experts aren’t sure why ectopic deaths have continued to rise.
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deaths → continue → ?
Ectopic pregnancies are more common among older women, but the increase in deaths has been even more stark among younger women, the analysis showed.
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analysis → show → women
Anti-abortion groups have suggested that the use of abortion pills prescribed online is leading to more undiagnosed ectopics because telehealth patients don’t receive an ultrasound.
uncertain
patients → suggest → ultrasound
But studies have found that ectopic rates are far lower among people who seek medication abortions than in the general population.
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who → find → population
Telehealth clinics ask questions that filter out patients at higher risk of ectopic pregnancy and follow up with those they treat to screen for symptoms, said Ushma Upadhyay, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies telehealth abortion administration.
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who → ask → administration
…and 86 more, not listed.
