Louisiana’s total abortion ban makes pregnancy increasingly dangerous for Black mothers like me

I no longer feel safe being pregnant in Louisiana. Not as a Black woman who received inadequate and delayed medical care while enduring a painful miscarriage because of  my home state’s abortion ban.

The effects of overturning Roe v. Wade havemade pregnancy an even more dangerous experience for women in Louisiana, and it’s terrifying to consider how much worse our reality can become if Republicans enact a national abortion ban.

When I found out I was pregnant with my second child in August 2022, my husband and I were overjoyed. Our daughter was 4 years old, and we couldn’t wait for her to become a big sister. Little did we know, however, that our dream would remain out of reach as new bans on abortion prevented me from accessing routine prenatal care and threatened my life.

At about six weeks into my pregnancy, I called the doctor’s office to schedule an eight-week check-up, just as I had done with my first pregnancy. Much to my surprise, the woman on the phone explained that now, following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which triggered a complete abortion ban in Louisiana, I couldn’t see a doctor before 12 weeks for legal liability reasons, as patients miscarry at higher rates early in pregnancy. Because the standard treatments for miscarriage management are also used for abortion care, doctors now fear criminal prosecution under the state’s abortion ban.

Not long after that phone call, I started cramping and bleeding. With my initial appointment over a month away, I didn’t know what to do or where to go for guidance. The pain then became so unbearable that I drove myself to an emergency room where I received the devastating news that the fetus had stopped growing. While there was still a faint heartbeat, I believed I was miscarrying.

However, due to liability fears, none of the hospital staff would confirm that what I was experiencing was a miscarriage or explain my treatment options. Instead, they sent me home with instructions to wait and told me they were praying for me. I’m a Christian woman who goes to church every Sunday. I needed answers and access to care, not their prayers.

The next day, my symptoms intensified; I was in worse pain than I’d experienced in my first childbirth and truly believed I was dying. My husband took me to a different hospital where I was similarly dismissed. When reviewing my ultrasound results, which indicated I had lost a lot of blood, the doctor said it looked more like a cyst and asked me if I was sure I was even pregnant. This illustrates exactly how Black women’s health concerns are often dismissed and downplayed by medical providers, putting our lives at risk.

Even though I had lost a significant amount of blood, the doctor refused my requests for miscarriage management out of fear of criminalization as the two standard options for treating a first-trimester miscarriage are also used for abortions. Instead, the doctor sent me home with the advice to take Tylenol. Defeated and still in pain, I returned home, waiting for weeks as my miscarriage passed.

My experience demonstrates how the overturning of Roe and restrictions on abortion access have criminalized essential health care and made pregnancy even more dangerous for Black women who were already significantly more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications. Mothers who live in states like Louisiana that banned abortion after Roe was overturned are up to 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth, compounding the dangers for Black women living in abortion hostile states.

Even before Louisiana’s total abortion ban, the state’s maternal death rates were among the highest in the nation, with four Black mothers dying in childbirth for every white mother. Now, I fear that even more Black women will die as a result of Republican attacks on our reproductive freedom.

The nightmare scenario of a national abortion ban is fermenting in our backyard as Louisiana native and Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson pushes a dangerous agenda to restrict abortion nationwide. A national ban could result in a 21% increase in pregnancy-related deaths for all women and a devastating 33% increase for Black women.

If Johnson and anti-abortion Republicans like him get their way, it will be a death sentence for far too many of us.