By Aria Bell
Blavity
https://blavity.com/
A Texas family is grieving the loss of Porsha Ngumezi, a 35-year-old woman who died in late 2024 after not getting the proper care needed due to the abortion bans and regulations that government officials enforced over the past few years.
According to CBS News, Hope Ngumezi is broken by not one but two losses within his growing family unit after his wife Porsha died following a visit to Houston Methodist Sugar Land’s emergency room for a miscarriage when she was 11 weeks pregnant.
“I blame the doctors, I blame the hospital, and I blame the state of Texas,” Hope told the news outlet this month.
What caused Porsha Ngumezi’s death?
On June 11, 2023, Porsha didn’t receive a dilation and curettage procedure that is often performed to fully clear the uterus after a pregnancy loss and an abortion performed during the first trimester, per ProPublica. The operation was something that needed to be done urgently due to the severe bleeding the mother endured over six hours in the emergency room. She lost so much blood that two blood transfusions were needed.
The procedure has become a concern among doctors because they fear potential legal repercussions under state laws. Hope is convinced this fear ultimately cost his wife her life as her condition deteriorated until she suffered cardiac arrest and died.
“I just felt like the doctor turned his back on us. You know, ‘I don’t want to go to jail. I don’t want to lose my license or get fined, so the best course is for me to protect myself,’” Ngumezi said, CBS News reported.
What does the Texas abortion ban consist of?
In 2021, Governor Greg Abbott signed off on a bill Texas lawmakers suggested called the Heartbeat Act, which bans most abortions in the state as early as six weeks, per The Texas Tribune. The one exception to the ruling is if a pregnant woman’s life is in danger or faces a serious risk. Unfortunately, there weren’t any specifications outlined to help determine what makes a pregnancy harmful, according to doctors per the news outlet.
“I feel like the law is very reckless…very dangerous,” Hope Ngumezi expressed regarding the law.
According to the Gender Equity Policy Institute stated that the maternal mortality rate, the death of a woman within 42 days after pregnancy ends, in Texas may be rising due to recent abortion restrictions, according to CBS News. Maternal deaths in the state jumped 56% between 2019 and 2022— which is significantly higher than the national increase of 11% during the same timeframe.
The abortion restrictions were primarily sponsored by Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes, whose answer to doctors’ worries about potential consequences was, “I hear that. And I can show you the definition of abortion in Texas and it says removal of a miscarriage is not an abortion.”
Hughes also mentioned that lawmakers are reviewing ways to clarify the legislation, though no changes have occurred. While a plan may be underway to fix the deadly gaps within the Heartbeat Act, Hope is trying to navigate moving forward as a single father of two boys.
“We’re not supposed to be worried about, man if I have a complication, am I gonna lose my life? Would a doctor give me the proper care?” Ngumezi said.
