The harrowing experience of being pregnant in post-Roe America

This is an adapted excerpt from the Feb. 15 episode of “Velshi.”

It’s becoming increasingly more dangerous to be a woman in America.

More than 76% of adults in the U.S. — 194 million people — live with at least one chronic illness, and women experience these conditions at higher rates than men.

Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the top three leading causes of death for women nationwide. Medical advances have made it possible to manage and treat many of these conditions, preventing them from becoming fatal.

But now, women are being denied that lifesaving care simply because they are pregnant.

Let’s be clear: Pregnancy does not reduce medical risk; it often increases it. Pre-existing conditions can worsen during pregnancy, requiring more medical attention, not less.

In post-Roe America and especially in states with strict anti-abortion laws on the books, doctors are fearful of running afoul of the law.

Consider the story of Ciji Graham, a 34-year-old police officer and mother to a toddler living in North Carolina.

As Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana report in a piece for ProPublica, when Graham was about six weeks pregnant with her second child, she went to the doctor complaining of chest pains and heart palpitations.

Her heart rate was recorded at 192 beats per minute — for context, a normal resting heart rate is between 60 and 100 bpm.

Graham said it felt like her heart was practically leaping out of her chest. She had a history of heart rhythm issues and, in the past, doctors had restored her heartbeat using a shock procedure called cardioversion.

But this time was different. Because Graham was pregnant, she was sent home.

She texted a friend from the appointment, telling them the doctor didn’t want to risk harming the pregnancy. (Graham’s family gave her doctors permission to speak with ProPublica, but they didn’t reply to questions.)

Now, it’s important to note that Graham was not seeking an abortion at this point. She was simply seeking treatment for a dangerous heart condition, and she was denied that treatment because of potential harm to her pregnancy.

It is also worth noting that ProPublica spoke with more than a dozen medical specialists who said cardioversion is considered to be safe during pregnancy and that it should have been provided.

But as ProPublica has also well-documented, in post-Roe America and especially in states with strict anti-abortion laws on the books, doctors are fearful of running afoul of the law.

When she couldn’t get proper treatment for her heart condition, Graham decided that the only way to protect her health was to terminate her pregnancy.

Abortion is heavily restricted in North Carolina, but it is still legal up to 12 weeks. So Graham turned to the only abortion clinic in Greensboro.

But there she faced new barriers. The clinic was overwhelmed with patients traveling from surrounding states that had completely banned abortion after Roe was overturned.

On top of that, a new state law now requires North Carolina patients to attend an additional appointment before receiving an abortion. Waiting periods and multiple-appointment laws are pernicious but common anti-abortion measures, with the singular purpose of making it harder for women to get abortions.

As a result, the clinic was backlogged and Graham would have to wait two weeks to be seen. But she didn’t have two weeks.

Days after seeking medical care, Graham failed to show up for work.

A fellow officer and Graham’s boyfriend found her unconscious, facedown in bed. Graham’s 2-year-old son looked on from his crib as they attempted to perform CPR on her before she was pronounced dead.

Her family later told her son that his mother left Earth and went to the moon. He now calls it the “Mommy moon.”

“For the past two years, every night before bed, he asks to go outside, even on the coldest winter evenings,” Graham’s family told ProPublica. “He points to the moon in the dark sky and tells his mother that he loves her.”

Graham’s story, a harrowing picture of a family ripped apart, has become one that is all too common in post-Roe America.

Allison Detzel contributed.