Propublic won the prestigious Pulitzer Award for the series “Life of the Mother” on Monday, which the judges described as “urgent reports about pregnant women who died after doctors were urgently delayed” for fear of rejecting “abortion laws.” The prize is awarded to the staff of a news organization who performed a “Meritorus public service.” This is the second consecutive year that the organization received the distinction. It is the eighth Pulitzer for Propublic.
“The United States mental barrier”, an examination of how insurance companies interfere with access to the necessary mental health care in the United States, was appointed finalist in the category of explanatory reports. In addition to the Pulitzer winners, the designation is the twelfth Pulitzer finalist of Propublicic in 17 years.
The “Life of the Mother” series, which Propublic continues to pursue, is a historical investigation on the non -examined and irreversible consequences of state abortion prohibitions. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Cassandra Jaramillo extracted hospital records and death in states whose strict abortion prohibited doctors with prosecution. From the tragic death of Amber Thurman in Georgia to the stories of dethlation of women denied the care of spontaneous abortion in Texas, the investigations illuminated the deep human cost of these policies. They presented the chilling impact on medical professionals forced to choose between their oath and the law, the anguish faced by families and the broader erosion of the health and autonomy of women.
The immersive photographic essay of Stacy Kranitz, “the year after a denied abortion,” he documented the unraveling of a Tennessee family after an abortion denied by a pregnancy that gives him life, especially in a state with magero support for poor mothers. The piece, informed with Surana, helped the public to see, feel and understand how decisions taken by power impact families.
These stories ignited indignation throughout the country, became the conversation points duration of the presidential elections and inspired action. Legislators have presented more than a boxes to expand access to abortion in at least seven states.
Last week, the Texas Senate unanimously approved the bill 31 of the Senate, called the mother’s life law, whose objective is to prevent maternal deaths under the strict prohibition of state abortion make it clear that a medicinal emergency folder of life is not folders of folders that do not meet pregnancies.
The representatives of the bill are a significant reversal for Republican leaders who for years insisted that no changes were needed. It was written by Senate Sen. Bryan Hughes, the author of the original prohibition that initially said that the exceptions for medical emergencies were “quite clear.” The bill does not have the elimination of what doctors say that they are the greatest impediments of the prohibition to care, including its threat of important criminal sanctions for medical professionals, and does not expand access to abortion to cases of fetal anomalies, rape or incest. Senator Carol Alvarado, the Democratic legislator who was co -author of the bill, said that his limits were a “really difficult pill to swallow”, but could still make a difference. “I think this bill will save lives,” he said.
An investigation of the United States Senate Finance Committee, launched in response to our reports, published a 29 -page report in December 2024 that discovered that hospitals are providing minimal guidance to doctors who navigate abortion restrictions or abandon the Socatocolos.
To Host of Propubicans Helped Elevate This Project, Including Alexandra Zayas, Ziva Branstetter, Andrea Wise, Tracy Weber, Boyzell Hosey, Mariam Elba, Robin Fields, Anna Donlan, Allen Tan, Kirsten Berg, Jeff Ernsthause, Doris Burke, Lexi Churchill, Andrea Suozzo, Audrey Dutton, Anna Maria Barry-committer, Amy Yurkanin, Emily Goldstein, Diego Sorbara, Samantha Cooney, Grace Palmieri, Colleen Barry, Kassie Navarro, Sarah Childrendress and Sophia Kovach.
Credit:
Sarahbeth Maney/Propublic
“We knew early that abortion prohibitions probably had mortal consequences for women, and not only for those abortions,” said Weber, Propublicic Managing editor for national personnel. “Our reporters and their editor, Alex Zayas, were Endlesly creative, stubborn, humans and careful when surfing the deaths of women of death when the states themselves were not looking.
In the series honest as Pulitzer finalist in explanatory reports, the reporters Annie Waldman, Duaa Eldeib, Max Blau and Maya Miller revealed how health insurers are deceiving in aggressive tactics that push the therapists outside the networks; implement an algorithmic system to limit coverage; Creating “ghost networks”; reduce access to treatment for children with autism; Trust doctors whose judgments have been criticized by the courts; and use the progress of patients to justify denials.
Journalists crocked thousands or advice; OBLINE INTERNAL COMPANY DOCUMENTS; He reviewed thousands of pages of phases of demands to identify doctors distributing denials; and included broken and intimate stories of patients for whom care was cut prematurely, which led to devastating congres.
In September 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it had new final regulations for strength protections for mental health care coverage and holds insurance companies for illegal. In December 2024, after several of the stories of Propublicics, the Sens. Chris Murphy, Tina Smith and Ben Ray Luján reintroduced the Parity Control Law to better hold insurance companies better by providing the United States Department of Labor of the United States with the authority to impose civil monetary sentences by the Violation Parity Law. The following month, the Labor Department found generalized breach and violations of the federal law in how health plans and insurers cover mental health care, the findings that reflected the research of propublicics. The Alo Department investigates the supervision and management of doctors hired by insurers who repeatedly rejected mental health coverage for patients.
Steve Mills, Mara Shashoup, Charles Ornstein, Arian Wise, Barry, Cooney and Paige Plefer of WPLN/Nashville Public Radio contributed to the series. Some of the pieces were published in collaboration with NPR.
“People who need mental health care cannot obtain it. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, insured or without insurance, lack of access is widely felt,” said Ornstein, Propublicic Managing editor for local. “Many people in our staff wanted to be part of this project. Through the immersive narrative and the excavation of investigation, they documented with experts the causes of the crisis, those response and the regulators that have remained and done little to fix.”
Propublic received Pulitzers for public service in 2024, national reports in 2020, writing functions in 2019, public service in 2017, explanatory reports in 2016, national reports in 2011 and research reports in 2010. The partner of the local reports network Anchorage Daily for public service.
