Ectopic pregnancy deaths have nearly doubled — and the rise is worse in abortion-ban states

ProPublica analysed CDC data and found almost 200 deaths involving ectopic pregnancies from 2020–2025, versus roughly 100 during the preceding six years.

This does not establish that abortion bans caused the national increase. Deaths already rose during Covid, and states with bans often had worse maternal-health systems beforehand. ProPublica and the experts it consulted explicitly make that caveat.

The plausible mechanism is nevertheless disturbing. Ectopic pregnancies are generally exempt from bans, but early ultrasound often cannot establish whether a pregnancy is ectopic, miscarrying or simply too early to see. In a state without a ban, a patient can decide that continued waiting is too risky and terminate. In a ban state, doctors facing criminal liability have stronger incentives to wait for diagnostic certainty — while rupture risk increases. Texas recorded 310 more ectopic-pregnancy patients with substantial blood loss in 2023–24 than in 2018–19, a 29% increase.

It shows how regulation can alter medical outcomes through uncertainty and incentives even when the dangerous condition is formally exempt from the law.