Living and Dying Under Dobbs, vol. 2 (no audio). Scroll down to read the stories.
Volume 2 of the ongoing textile book.
Scroll down to read the stories.
After miscarrying in a public restroom, Mallori Patrice Strait, 33, was arrested for “abuse of a corpse” in Bexar County, TX on December 19, 2024. She was released on May 14, 2025 when the medical examiner determined that the fetus had died in utero as a result of miscarriage and there was no evidence she attempted to damage it. While Mallori was in prison for nearly five months, the anti-abortion group Eagles Flight Advocacy took custody of the dead fetus, named it, and gave it a public funeral.
In 2024, Anna Nusslock was pregnant when her water broke at 15 weeks. Doctors said that infection and high blood pressure meant she needed miscarriage treatment, but St. Joseph, a Catholic hospital, refused to authorize it because of fetal heart tones. When the hospital discharged Anna with a bucket and towels, “in case something happens in the car,” her husband drove her to another hospital where she began hemorrhaging and underwent immediate surgery. Anna and the state of California are now suing the hospital. Anna, who has been diagnosed with PTSD, says, “I still have that voice in the back of my head just screaming, ‘you’re bleeding to death.”
Since 1985, federal law prohibits the military from paying for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother, even in states where abortion is legal. On April 3, 2023, EMTs carried Coast Guard Commander Elizabeth Nakagawa from her California home. She said the tarp they used reminded her of a body bag. Elizabeth was hemorrhaging from a miscarriage because military insurer Tricare had refused to cover a D&C scheduled for earlier that day. Tricare’s chief clinical officer later admitted that, since Dobbs, the insurer has grown more conservative in approving D&C’s. He said they hadn’t understood that delaying or denying care could put women’s lives at risk. After four hours of bleeding in the ER, Elizabeth got a D&C.
Josseli Barnica loved to dress her family in matching clothes. In 2020, she posted on social media a photo of herself, her husband, and their one-year-old daughter in matching red and black plaid. “God bless my family,” she wrote. “Our first Christmas with our princess.” Seventeen weeks into her second pregnancy in 2021, Josseli began to miscarry, but under Texas’s pre-Dobbs abortion ban, treatment was illegal because a fetal heartbeat was detected. For 40 hours, Josseli lay in the hospital with the fetal head in her open cervix, her uterus exposed to infection, until doctors could no longer detect a heartbeat and delivered the fetus. After bleeding at home for 3 days, she returned to the hospital, where she died of an infection at the age of 28.
In April 2022, Celeste Burgess was 17 when her mother Jessica, 42, obtained abortion pills to help her end her pregnancy in Nebraska. A detective, responding to a tip that Celeste had a stillbirth and hid the remains, learned from her medical records that she had been about 28 weeks pregnant. The detective served a search warrant to Meta and obtained Facebook messages between Celeste and Jessica that discussed abortion medication. The two women were charged with multiple crimes, including concealing or abandoning a dead body. Jessica was also charged with providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation. At her sentencing hearing, Celeste said she sought to end the pregnancy because she did not want to raise a child with an abusive former partner. She was sentenced to 90 days in jail and was released after serving 53 days. In July 2023, Jessica was sentenced to two years in prison.
In February 2025, 30-year-old Adriana Smith was declared brain dead after suffering blood clots in her brain. Because she was nine weeks pregnant, Georgia’s abortion ban meant she was kept on a ventilator. Her mother April said, “It’s torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she’s not there.” Her 7-year-old son thought she was just sleeping. April also said, “It should have been left up to the family. I’m not saying we would have chosen to terminate her pregnancy, but we should have had a choice.” The 1 lb. 13 oz. baby was delivered by emergency C-section on June 13, and Adriana was removed from life support on June 17. Rest in peace, Adriana. Rest in peace.
Sources
Mallori Patrice Strait.
“Charge dismissed against woman accused of attempting to flush fetus due to insufficient evidence, records show.” KSAT.com. May 19, 2025.
Anna Nusslock.
“Her Miscarriage Showed the Limits of California’s Protections. Where You Live Matters.” CalMatters. May 21, 2025.
“California Sues Hospital for Denying Patient an Emergency Abortion.” New York Times. Sept. 30, 2024.
Elizabeth Nakagawa.
“A Coast Guard Commander Miscarried. She Nearly Died After Being Denied Care.” ProPublica. December 13, 2024.
Josseli Barnica.
“A Woman Died After Being Told It Would Be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage at a Texas Hospital.” ProPublica. October 30, 2024.
Celeste and Jessica Burgess.
“Nebraska Mom Gets Prison Time for Giving Daughter Abortion Pills.” The Cut. September 2023.
“Mother Who Gave Abortion Pills to Teen Daughter Gets 2 Years in Prison.” New York Times. September 22, 2023.
“Nebraska Teen Who Used Pills to End Pregnancy Gets 90 Days in Jail.” New York Times. July 20, 2023.
Adriana Smith.
“Family says woman declared brain dead kept alive because she's pregnant.” 11Alive. May 13, 2025.
“A Brain-Dead Woman Is Being Kept on Machines to Gestate a Fetus. It Was Inevitable.” New York Times. May 24, 2025.
“Rep. Ayanna Pressley Calls for Justice for Adriana Smith, Condemns GOP’s Cruel Abortion Bans.” June 5, 2025.