Who Was Nevaeh Crain? Pregnant Texas Teen Died Allegedly After Being Denied Emergency Abortion Care

Nevaeh Crain, a, 18-year-old pregnant Texas woman, died in October 2023 after reportedly seeking medical care on three separate emergency room visits, according to a report by and . Crain found out she was pregnant with her boyfriend, Randall Broussard, in May. She was six months along when her condition turned critical on October 29. She was in severe pain, too weak to walk, feverish, and vomiting. Over a 12-hour period, Crain visited two hospitals. The first diagnosed her with strep throat without examining her intense abdominal pain. At the second hospital, she tested positive for sepsis, but doctors noted her fetus still had a heartbeat and reportedly told her she was "fine to leave." When she finally reached a third hospital, an obstetrician ordered two ultrasounds to "confirm fetal demise" before transferring her to intensive care."By then, more than two hours after her arrival, Crain’s blood pressure had plummeted and a nurse had noted that her lips were 'blue and dusky.' Her organs began failing," the report states. "Hours later, she was dead."Crain's mother, Candace Fails, expressed frustration to ProPublica, saying she could not understand why her daughter’s situation was not treated as an emergency. She told the publication that it was the medical examiner, not the hospital doctors, who removed the baby from Crain's womb.

Nevaeh Crain should be turning 20 years old today.

Instead, she's another heartbreaking victim of Trump's abortion bans.https://t.co/BYNgd00jum pic.twitter.com/mlXmoPzAGv

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2024

Experts told the publication that pregnant women are increasingly facing similar issues in states with strict abortion bans.“Pregnant women have become essentially untouchables,” Sara Rosenbaum, a health law and policy professor emerita at George Washington University, told the publicationDr. Jodi Abbott, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine, highlighted the distressing uncertainty patients feel: "Am I being sent home because I really am OK? Or am I being sent home because they’re afraid that the solution to what’s going on with my pregnancy would be ending the pregnancy, and they’re not allowed to do that?"Crain's case is one of at least two reported Texas deaths linked to the state's abortion ban enacted after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights. Earlier this week, the publication reported on the death of 28-year-old Joselli Barnica, who died of sepsis in 2021 after she was denied an abortion following a miscarriage at 17 weeks.