
Denied Care and a Dying Heart: A North Carolina Mother’s Death Amid Abortion Restrictions
ProPublica’s investigation chronicles how Ciji Graham, a 34-year-old pregnant Greensboro police officer with atrial fibrillation, could not access urgent heart treatment or a timely abortion under North Carolina’s abortion restrictions, ultimately dying from cardiac arrhythmia. Cardiologists say she should have been hospitalized for cardioversion, but delays stemmed from care being routed through clinics rather than hospitals, unclear policies, and legal fears around abortion. The piece situates her death within a broader pattern of high‑risk pregnant patients losing access to standard care in states with restrictive abortion laws.













