Author: Sophie Chou, ProPublica

Sophie Chou is a data reporter at ProPublica. She uses statistics and data science to investigate stories. Before coming to ProPublica, she was a data journalist at Public Radio International, and a Google News fellow at the Pew Research Center, where she was a primary researcher on a report that used Google search data to measure the impact of media coverage of the Flint water crisis. Sophie earned her master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she researched how political news spread on Twitter during the 2016 elections, and completed an undergraduate degree in computer science at Columbia University.

Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared.

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ProPublica’s investigation reveals that Texas’ abortion ban has led to a sharp rise in life-threatening complications, particularly sepsis, for women experiencing pregnancy loss.

Since the ban’s enactment, the rate of sepsis during second-trimester pregnancy loss has surged by over 50 percent, and maternal deaths in Texas hospitals have increased significantly, even as the national maternal mortality rate declined. Doctors cite the law’s vague emergency exception and the threat of legal consequences as key reasons for dangerous delays in care.

While some Texas lawmakers now acknowledge the need for legal clarifications, the Republican-controlled legislature remains divided, with some pushing for even stricter abortion penalties.

Texas Sends Millions to Crisis Pregnancy Centers. It’s Meant to Help Needy Families, But No One Knows if It Works.

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Two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Texas leads the nation in funding for crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). The system is meant to help growing families, but it’s riddled with waste and lacks oversight, a ProPublica and CBS News investigation found.

What’s worse: Lawmakers around the country are considering programs modeled on Texas’ CPC system, called Alternatives to Abortion.

In North Carolina, Black Voters’ Mail-In Ballots Far More Likely to Be Rejected Than Any Other Race

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In North Carolina, Black Voters’ Mail-In Ballots Far More Likely to Be Rejected Than Any Other Race

According to a new analysis of 2018 mail-in absentee ballot data from the State Board of Elections, ballots mailed by Black voters during the midterms were more than twice as likely as those sent in by white voters to be rejected. This disparity—similar to gaps in other states—raises concerns about the equity of ballot counting and whether systemic racism and voter disenfranchisement may be tainting elections.

So far, 2020 shows a similar pattern.