Hi Reader,

When Mayron Michelle Hollis got pregnant in 2022, doctors warned her that she and her fetus might not survive. The embryo had implanted in scar tissue from a previous cesarean section, and there was a high chance that the uterus could rupture, causing serious harm to Mayron and even, possibly, death during delivery. The baby could arrive prematurely and face serious medical risks, or even die.

Mayron decided to end her pregnancy, but the Supreme Court had just overturned Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion across the United States, and Tennessee’s abortion ban — one of the nation’s strictest — had gone into effect. In December 2022, Mayron was rushed to the hospital after she began bleeding heavily. An emergency surgery saved her life, and her daughter, Elayna, was born three months early.

ProPublica journalists followed Mayron and her family for a year to chronicle what life truly looked like in a state whose political leaders say they are pro-life, but which has some of the worst outcomes in the nation when measuring maternal health, infant mortality and child poverty. Lawmakers who paved the way for a new generation of post-Roe births did little to bolster the state’s meager safety net to support these babies and their families. “They forced me, basically, to have a child,” Mayron said of the state after the abortion ban. But then, “they didn’t help me take care of that child.”

Mayron let us document her life in intimate detail because she wanted people to “see for themselves and feel it in their own lives” how her family has struggled to raise two babies after a traumatic pregnancy and while recovering from a history of addiction. ProPublica journalists describe being embedded with Mayron and her family in this Q&A with the Nieman Foundation, which tells even more of the inside story.

Mayron’s story, part of our “Post-Roe America,” series, illustrates the tremendous upheaval of restricted abortion access across the nation. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe, ending nearly 50 years of federal protection for abortion, some states began enforcing strict abortion bans while others became new havens for the procedure. 

The consequences of overturning Roe are complex, nuanced and varied. Understanding how sweeping changes to reproductive health care access in America are affecting people, institutions and governments will take time. ProPublica is committed to following stories like this, and we’re able to do so because readers like you support our work. 

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Thanks so much, 

Jill Shepherd

Proud ProPublican