ProPublica on Monday received the distinguished Pulitzer Prize for public service for the sequence “Lifetime of the Mom,” which the judges described as “pressing reporting about pregnant girls who died after medical doctors delayed urgently wanted look after worry of violating imprecise ‘lifetime of the mom’ exceptions in states with strict abortion legal guidelines.” The prize is given to the employees of a information group that carried out “meritorious public service.” That is the second consecutive 12 months the group was awarded the excellence. It’s the eighth Pulitzer for ProPublica.
“America’s Psychological Barrier,” an examination of how insurance coverage firms intervene with entry to vital psychological well being care throughout the US, was named a finalist within the explanatory reporting class. Along with the Pulitzer winners, the designation is ProPublica’s twelfth Pulitzer finalist in 17 years.
The “Lifetime of the Mom” sequence, which ProPublica continues to pursue, is a landmark investigation into the unexamined, irreversible penalties of state abortion bans. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Cassandra Jaramillo mined hospital and demise data in states whose strict abortion bans threatened physicians with prosecution. From the tragic demise of Amber Thurman in Georgia to gutting accounts of girls denied lifesaving miscarriage care in Texas, the investigations illuminated the profound human price of those insurance policies. They uncovered the chilling influence on medical professionals pressured to decide on between their oath and the legislation, the anguish confronted by households and the broader erosion of ladies’s well being and autonomy.
Stacy Kranitz’s immersive picture essay, “The Yr After a Denied Abortion,” documented the unraveling of a Tennessee household after a denied abortion for a life-threatening being pregnant, particularly in a state with meager assist for poor moms. The piece, reported with Surana, helped audiences see, really feel and perceive how selections made by these in energy influence households.
These tales ignited outrage across the nation, grew to become speaking factors throughout the presidential election and impressed motion. Lawmakers have filed greater than a dozen payments to broaden abortion entry in at the very least seven states.
Final week, the Texas Senate unanimously handed Senate Invoice 31, known as The Lifetime of the Mom Act, which goals to stop maternal deaths below the state’s strict abortion ban by making clear {that a} life-threatening medical emergency doesn’t should be imminent for medical doctors to observe their medical requirements and intervene to terminate pregnancies.
The invoice represents a major reversal for Republican leaders who had for years insisted no modifications have been wanted. It was written by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the creator of the unique ban who initially stated that exceptions for medical emergencies have been “loads clear.” The invoice stops in need of eradicating what medical doctors say are the ban’s largest impediments to care, together with its menace of main prison penalties for medical professionals, and it doesn’t broaden abortion entry to instances of fetal anomalies, rape or incest. Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Democratic lawmaker who co-authored the invoice, stated that its limits have been a “actual onerous tablet to swallow” however that it might nonetheless make a distinction. “I imagine this invoice will save lives,” she stated.
A U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigation, launched in response to our reporting, launched a 29-page report in December 2024 that discovered that hospitals are offering minimal steering to medical doctors navigating abortion restrictions, usually leaving them with out clear protocols in life-or-death conditions.
A bunch of ProPublicans helped elevate this venture, together with Alexandra Zayas, Ziva Branstetter, Andrea Sensible, Tracy Weber, Boyzell Hosey, Mariam Elba, Robin Fields, Anna Donlan, Allen Tan, Kirsten Berg, Jeff Ernsthausen, Doris Burke, Lexi Churchill, Andrea Suozzo, Audrey Dutton, Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Amy Yurkanin, Emily Goldstein, Diego Sorbara, Samantha Cooney, Grace Palmieri, Colleen Barry, Kassie Navarro, Sarah Childress and Sophia Kovach.
“We knew early that abortion bans have been more likely to have lethal penalties for girls, and never simply these searching for abortions,” stated Weber, ProPublica’s managing editor for the nationwide employees. “Our reporters and their editor, Alex Zayas, have been endlessly artistic, dogged, humane and cautious in surfacing the deaths of those girls when the states themselves weren’t trying. We’re so honored that the Pulitzer Board has acknowledged their efforts.”
Within the sequence honored as a Pulitzer finalist in explanatory reporting, reporters Annie Waldman, Duaa Eldeib, Max Blau and Maya Miller revealed how well being insurers are participating in aggressive techniques that push therapists out of networks; deploying an algorithmic system to restrict protection; creating “ghost networks”; reducing entry to remedy for kids with autism; counting on medical doctors whose judgments have been criticized by courts; and utilizing sufferers’ progress to justify denials.
The reporters crowdsourced 1000’s of ideas; obtained explosive inside firm paperwork; reviewed 1000’s of pages of lawsuit filings to establish the medical doctors doling out denials; and included shattering and intimate tales of sufferers for whom care was prematurely minimize off, resulting in devastating penalties.
In September 2024, the Biden administration introduced that it had finalized new laws to strengthen protections for psychological well being care protection and maintain insurance coverage firms accountable for unlawfully denying it. In December 2024, following a number of of ProPublica’s tales, U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy, Tina Smith and Ben Ray Luján reintroduced the Parity Enforcement Act to higher maintain insurance coverage firms accountable by offering the U.S. Division of Labor the authority to impose civil financial penalties for violations of the psychological well being parity legislation. The next month, the Labor Division discovered widespread noncompliance and violations of federal legislation in how well being plans and insurers cowl psychological well being care, findings that mirrored ProPublica’s investigation. The division additionally started investigating the oversight and administration of medical doctors employed by insurers who repeatedly denied psychological well being protection for sufferers.
Steve Mills, Mara Shalhoup, Charles Ornstein, Ariana Tobin, Zisiga Mukulu, Tony Luong, Alex Bandoni, Agnel Philip, Vanessa Saba, Chris Morran, Cengiz Yar, Isabelle Yan, Lena Groeger, Zayas, Weber, Berg, Ernsthausen, Tan, Goldstein, Palmieri, Sorbara, Sensible, Barry, Cooney and Paige Pfleger of WPLN/Nashville Public Radio contributed to the sequence. A few of the items have been revealed in collaboration with NPR.
“Individuals who want psychological well being care usually can not get it. It doesn’t matter in case you are wealthy or poor, insured or uninsured, the dearth of entry is extensively felt,” stated Ornstein, ProPublica’s managing editor for native. “So many individuals on our employees needed to be part of this venture. By immersive storytelling and investigative digging, they adeptly documented the causes of the disaster, these accountable and the regulators who’ve stood by and finished little to repair it.”
ProPublica obtained Pulitzers for public service in 2024, nationwide reporting in 2020, characteristic writing in 2019, public service in 2017, explanatory reporting in 2016, nationwide reporting in 2011 and investigative reporting in 2010. Native Reporting Community associate Anchorage Every day Information received the Pulitzer for public service in 2020.
