Ectopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It's Worse in Abortion-Ban States.

This story was originally published by ProPublica.

The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found. The mounting deaths in CDC data have drawn little scrutiny or response.

Such deaths typically occur in the first trimester, after a pregnancy fails to properly implant in the uterus and begins to develop elsewhere, most commonly inside a fallopian tube. The embryo grows until it causes the organ to rupture, triggering catastrophic bleeding.

With prompt and appropriate medical care, maternal health experts say, women should not die. Yet ProPublica's analysis found a stark and baffling increase: Almost 200 women with the condition died from 2020 to 2025, compared with about 100 in the previous 6 years.

"A death related to ectopic pregnancy should really be a never event," said Alice Abernathy, MD, an ob/gyn in Philadelphia.