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ProPublica on Monday gained the celebrated Pulitzer Prize for public service for the sequence “Lifetime of the Mom,” which the judges described as “pressing reporting about pregnant ladies who died after medical doctors delayed urgently wanted look after concern of violating imprecise ‘lifetime of the mom’ exceptions in states with strict abortion legal guidelines.” The prize is given to the employees of a information group that carried out “meritorious public service.” That is the second consecutive yr the group was awarded the excellence. It’s the eighth Pulitzer for ProPublica.
“America’s Psychological Barrier,” an examination of how insurance coverage corporations intrude with entry to crucial psychological well being care throughout america, was named a finalist within the explanatory reporting class. Along with the Pulitzer winners, the designation is ProPublica’s twelfth Pulitzer finalist in 17 years.
The “Lifetime of the Mom” sequence, which ProPublica continues to pursue, is a landmark investigation into the unexamined, irreversible penalties of state abortion bans. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Cassandra Jaramillo mined hospital and loss of life data in states whose strict abortion bans threatened physicians with prosecution. From the tragic loss of life of Amber Thurman in Georgia to gutting accounts of girls denied lifesaving miscarriage care in Texas, the investigations illuminated the profound human price of those insurance policies. They uncovered the chilling impression on medical professionals compelled to decide on between their oath and the legislation, the anguish confronted by households and the broader erosion of girls’s well being and autonomy.
Lifetime of the Mom
America’s Psychological Barrier
Stacy Kranitz’s immersive photograph essay, “The 12 months After a Denied Abortion,” documented the unraveling of a Tennessee household after a denied abortion for a life-threatening being pregnant, particularly in a state with meager assist for poor moms. The piece, reported with Surana, helped audiences see, really feel and perceive how choices made by these in energy impression households.
These tales ignited outrage across the nation, grew to become speaking factors through the presidential election and impressed motion. Lawmakers have filed greater than a dozen payments to increase abortion entry in at the very least seven states.
Final week, the Texas Senate unanimously handed Senate Invoice 31, referred to as The Lifetime of the Mom Act, which goals to forestall maternal deaths below the state’s strict abortion ban by making clear {that a} life-threatening medical emergency doesn’t must be imminent for medical doctors to observe their medical requirements and intervene to terminate pregnancies.
The invoice represents a major reversal for Republican leaders who had for years insisted no modifications have been wanted. It was written by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the writer of the unique ban who initially stated that exceptions for medical emergencies have been “a lot clear.” The invoice stops in need of eradicating what medical doctors say are the ban’s greatest impediments to care, together with its risk of main legal penalties for medical professionals, and it doesn’t increase abortion entry to instances of fetal anomalies, rape or incest. Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Democratic lawmaker who co-authored the invoice, stated that its limits have been a “actual onerous capsule to swallow” however that it may nonetheless make a distinction. “I consider this invoice will save lives,” she stated.
A U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigation, launched in response to our reporting, launched a 29-page report in December 2024 that discovered that hospitals are offering minimal steering to medical doctors navigating abortion restrictions, usually leaving them with out clear protocols in life-or-death conditions.
A number of ProPublicans helped elevate this mission, together with Alexandra Zayas, Ziva Branstetter, Andrea Sensible, Tracy Weber, Boyzell Hosey, Mariam Elba, Robin Fields, Anna Donlan, Allen Tan, Kirsten Berg, Jeff Ernsthausen, Doris Burke, Lexi Churchill, Andrea Suozzo, Audrey Dutton, Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Amy Yurkanin, Emily Goldstein, Diego Sorbara, Samantha Cooney, Grace Palmieri, Colleen Barry, Kassie Navarro, Sarah Childress and Sophia Kovach.
From left: visible technique editor Andrea Sensible, Zayas, Presser, Surana, Jaramillo, editor Ziva Branstetter and analysis reporter Mariam Elba. ProPublica continues to pursue tales within the “Lifetime of the Mom” sequence.
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Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublica
“We knew early that abortion bans have been more likely to have lethal penalties for ladies, and never simply these searching for abortions,” stated Weber, ProPublica’s managing editor for the nationwide employees. “Our reporters and their editor, Alex Zayas, have been endlessly inventive, dogged, humane and cautious in surfacing the deaths of those ladies when the states themselves weren’t wanting. We’re so honored that the Pulitzer Board has acknowledged their efforts.”
Within the sequence honored as a Pulitzer finalist in explanatory reporting, reporters Annie Waldman, Duaa Eldeib, Max Blau and Maya Miller revealed how well being insurers are partaking in aggressive techniques that push therapists out of networks; deploying an algorithmic system to restrict protection; creating “ghost networks”; reducing entry to therapy for youngsters with autism; counting on medical doctors whose judgments have been criticized by courts; and utilizing sufferers’ progress to justify denials.
The reporters crowdsourced 1000’s of suggestions; obtained explosive inside firm paperwork; reviewed 1000’s of pages of lawsuit filings to establish the medical doctors doling out denials; and included shattering and intimate tales of sufferers for whom care was prematurely lower off, resulting in devastating penalties.
In September 2024, the Biden administration introduced that it had finalized new rules to strengthen protections for psychological well being care protection and maintain insurance coverage corporations accountable for unlawfully denying it. In December 2024, following a number of of ProPublica’s tales, U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy, Tina Smith and Ben Ray Luján reintroduced the Parity Enforcement Act to raised maintain insurance coverage corporations accountable by offering the U.S. Division of Labor the authority to impose civil financial penalties for violations of the psychological well being parity legislation. The next month, the Labor Division discovered widespread noncompliance and violations of federal legislation in how well being plans and insurers cowl psychological well being care, findings that mirrored ProPublica’s investigation. The division additionally started investigating the oversight and administration of medical doctors employed by insurers who repeatedly denied psychological well being protection for sufferers.
Steve Mills, Mara Shalhoup, Charles Ornstein, Ariana Tobin, Zisiga Mukulu, Tony Luong, Alex Bandoni, Agnel Philip, Vanessa Saba, Chris Morran, Cengiz Yar, Isabelle Yan, Lena Groeger, Zayas, Weber, Berg, Ernsthausen, Tan, Goldstein, Palmieri, Sorbara, Sensible, Barry, Cooney and Paige Pfleger of WPLN/Nashville Public Radio contributed to the sequence. A few of the items have been revealed in collaboration with NPR.
“Individuals who want psychological well being care usually can not get it. It doesn’t matter if you’re wealthy or poor, insured or uninsured, the shortage of entry is broadly felt,” stated Ornstein, ProPublica’s managing editor for native. “So many individuals on our employees needed to be part of this mission. Via immersive storytelling and investigative digging, they adeptly documented the causes of the disaster, these accountable and the regulators who’ve stood by and completed little to repair it.”
ProPublica obtained Pulitzers for public service in 2024, nationwide reporting in 2020, characteristic writing in 2019, public service in 2017, explanatory reporting in 2016, nationwide reporting in 2011 and investigative reporting in 2010. Native Reporting Community accomplice Anchorage Day by day Information gained the Pulitzer for public service in 2020.
