Four years ago today, the extreme right-wing justices nominated by Donald Trump to the Supreme Court helped strip away the constitutional right to abortion that American women had held for nearly fifty years.
Trump hand-picked the justices who made it possible and spent his first term in office promising to overturn Roe. Now, as maternal death rates climb in state after state and physicians describe a healthcare system paralyzed by fear of prosecution, the human cost of that promise is impossible to ignore.
The numbers tell a damning story:
- Maternal mortality in states with abortion bans increased and was twice as high as in permissive states in 2023, while maternal mortality fell 21% in supportive states over the same period.
- A Johns Hopkins and UCLA study using national vital statistics data from 2016 to 2023 found a possible 9.2% increase in pregnancy-associated deaths in states with abortion bans, equivalent to an estimated 68 excess deaths by the end of 2023.
- Infant mortality rates increased 5.6% above expected levels in states with abortion bans, translating to 478 additional infant deaths.
- Black mothers living in states with bans were 3.3 times more likely to die than White mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period.
- Hispanic, Black, and other racial minority women saw more than double the increase in fertility rates compared to white women following Dobbs, driven in large part by Texas, which accounted for nearly 75% of excess births in ban states.
- Forty percent of OB-GYNs in states with abortion bans reported that bans constrain their ability to provide care for miscarriages and pregnancy-related emergencies.
- Doctors are leaving ban states entirely, worsening maternity care deserts already struggling before Dobbs.
“For four years, Trump and right-wing extremists have celebrated the overturn of Roe while women and infants die from preventable deaths in states with abortion bans. They’ve cheered while physicians face crippling decisions on whether to provide care or risk violating the law,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Brandon Weathersby. “They were warned that people would die needlessly if abortions were banned, but they did not care. Years later, and the death toll still hasn’t moved them to act.”
Published: Jun 24, 2026