New reporting from ProPublica is shining a light on how pregnant women are being denied lifesaving care because of North Carolina’s severe abortion ban, which is backed by the GOP field for Senate.
Whatley was “proud” when Roe v. Wade was overturned and paved the way for North Carolina to pass a severe abortion ban with limited exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother, which Whatley called “responsible,” “reasonable,” and “mainstream.” Whatley was also chair of the North Carolina Republican Party when it adopted a platform with a plank that would ban abortion with no exceptions.
Don Brown supports banning abortion. Michele Morrow is “unapologetically” anti-choice, supports an abortion ban even more restrictive than North Carolina’s ban, and has supported legislation that would allow providers to deny medical care that they deem in violation of their beliefs.
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Lizzie Presser, Kavitha Surana | January 14, 2026
- When Ciji Graham visited a cardiologist on Nov. 14, 2023, her heart was pounding at 192 beats per minute, a rate healthy people her age usually reach during the peak of a sprint. She was having another episode of atrial fibrillation, a rapid, irregular heartbeat. The 34-year-old Greensboro, North Carolina, police officer was at risk of a stroke or heart failure.
- In the past, doctors had always been able to shock Graham’s heart back into rhythm with a procedure called a cardioversion. But this time, the treatment was just out of reach. After a pregnancy test came back positive, the cardiologist didn’t offer to shock her. Graham texted her friend from the appointment: “Said she can’t cardiovert being pregnant.”
- The doctor told Graham to consult three other specialists and her primary care provider before returning in a week, according to medical records. Then she sent Graham home as her heart kept hammering.
- Like hundreds of thousands of women each year who enter pregnancy with chronic conditions, Graham was left to navigate care in a country where medical options have significantly narrowed.
- As ProPublica has reported, doctors in states that ban abortion have repeatedly denied standard care to high-risk pregnant patients. The expert consensus is that cardioversion is safe during pregnancy, and ProPublica spoke with more than a dozen specialists who said they would have immediately admitted Graham to a hospital to get her heart rhythm under control. They found fault, too, with a second cardiologist she saw the following day, who did not perform an electrocardiogram and also sent her home. Although Graham’s family gave the doctors permission to speak with ProPublica, neither replied to ProPublica’s questions.
- Graham came to believe that the best way to protect her health was to end her unexpected pregnancy. But because of new abortion restrictions in North Carolina and nearby states, finding a doctor who could quickly perform a procedure would prove difficult. Many physicians and hospitals now hesitate to discuss abortion, even when women ask about it. And abortion clinics are not set up to treat certain medically complicated cases. As a result, sick pregnant women like Graham are often on their own.
- North Carolina bans abortion after 12 weeks; Graham was only about six weeks pregnant. Still, there was a long line ahead of her.
- On top of that, a recent change in North Carolina law required an in-person consent visit three days before a termination. The same number of patients were now filling twice as many appointment slots.
- Graham would need to wait nearly two weeks for an abortion.
- On the morning of Nov. 19, Scott awoke to a rap on the front door of the apartment he and Graham shared. He’d been asleep on the couch after a night out with friends and thought that Graham had left for work.
- A police officer introduced himself and explained that Graham hadn’t shown up and wasn’t answering her phone. He knew she hadn’t been feeling well and wanted to check in.
- When Scott walked into their bedroom, Graham was face down in bed, her body cold when he touched her. The two men pulled her down to the floor to start CPR, but it was too late. SJ stood in his crib, silently watching as they realized.
- Three doctors who have served on state maternal mortality review committees, which study the deaths of pregnant women, told ProPublica that Graham’s death was preventable. “There were so many points where they could have intervened,” said Dr. Amelia Huntsberger, a former member of Idaho’s panel.
- Graham’s is the seventh case ProPublica has investigated in which a pregnant woman in a state that significantly restricted abortion died after she was unable to access standard care.
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