What The Hell America!

ProPublica on Monday won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for public service for the series “Life of the Mother,” which the judges described as “urgent reporting about pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgently needed care for fear of violating vague ‘life of the mother’ exceptions in states with strict abortion laws.” The prize is given to the staff of a news organization that performed “meritorious public service.” This is the second consecutive year the organization was awarded the distinction. It is the eighth Pulitzer for ProPublica.

“America’s Mental Barrier,” an examination of how insurance companies interfere with access to necessary mental health care across the United States, was named a finalist in the explanatory reporting category. In addition to the Pulitzer winners, the designation is ProPublica’s 12th Pulitzer finalist in 17 years.

The “Life of the Mother” series, which ProPublica continues to pursue, is a landmark investigation into the unexamined, irreversible consequences of state abortion bans. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Cassandra Jaramillo mined hospital and death records in states whose strict abortion bans threatened physicians with prosecution. From the tragic death of Amber Thurman in Georgia to gutting accounts of women denied lifesaving miscarriage care in Texas, the investigations illuminated the profound human cost of these policies. They exposed the chilling impact on medical professionals forced to choose between their oath and the law, the anguish faced by families and the broader erosion of women’s health and autonomy.

Stacy Kranitz’s immersive photo essay, “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” documented the unraveling of a Tennessee family after a denied abortion for a life-threatening pregnancy, especially in a state with meager support for poor mothers. The piece, reported with Surana, helped audiences see, feel and understand how decisions made by those in power impact families.

These stories ignited outrage around the country, became talking points during the presidential election and inspired action. Lawmakers have filed more than a dozen bills to expand abortion access in at least seven states.

Last week, the Texas Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 31, called The Life of the Mother Act, which aims to prevent maternal deaths under the state’s strict abortion ban by making clear that a life-threatening medical emergency doesn’t need to be imminent for doctors to follow their medical standards and intervene to terminate pregnancies.

The bill represents a significant reversal for Republican leaders who had for years insisted no changes were needed. It was written by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the author of the original ban who initially said that exceptions for medical emergencies were “plenty clear.” The bill stops short of removing what doctors say are the ban’s biggest impediments to care, including its threat of major criminal penalties for medical professionals, and it doesn’t expand abortion access to cases of fetal anomalies, rape or incest. Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Democratic lawmaker who co-authored the bill, said that its limits were a “real hard pill to swallow” but that it could still make a difference. “I believe this bill will save lives,” she said.

A U.S. Senate Finance Committee investigation, launched in response to our reporting, released a 29-page report in December 2024 that found that hospitals are providing minimal guidance to doctors navigating abortion restrictions, often leaving them without clear protocols in life-or-death situations.

A host of ProPublicans helped elevate this project, including Alexandra Zayas, Ziva Branstetter, Andrea Wise, 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 were likely to have deadly consequences for women, and not just those seeking abortions,” said Weber, ProPublica’s managing editor for the national staff. “Our reporters and their editor, Alex Zayas, were endlessly creative, dogged, humane and careful in surfacing the deaths of these women when the states themselves were not looking. We are so honored that the Pulitzer Board has recognized their efforts.”

In the series honored as a Pulitzer finalist in explanatory reporting, reporters Annie Waldman, Duaa Eldeib, Max Blau and Maya Miller revealed how health insurers are engaging in aggressive tactics that push therapists out of networks; deploying an algorithmic system to limit coverage; creating “ghost networks”; cutting access to treatment for children with autism; relying on doctors whose judgments have been criticized by courts; and using patients’ progress to justify denials.

The reporters crowdsourced thousands of tips; obtained explosive internal company documents; reviewed thousands of pages of lawsuit filings to identify the doctors doling out denials; and included shattering and intimate stories of patients for whom care was prematurely cut off, leading to devastating consequences.

In September 2024, the Biden administration announced that it had finalized new regulations to strengthen protections for mental health care coverage and hold insurance companies accountable for unlawfully denying it. In December 2024, following several of ProPublica’s stories, U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy, Tina Smith and Ben Ray Luján reintroduced the Parity Enforcement Act to better hold insurance companies accountable by providing the U.S. Department of Labor the authority to impose civil monetary penalties for violations of the mental health parity law. The following month, the Labor Department found widespread noncompliance and violations of federal law in how health plans and insurers cover mental health care, findings that mirrored ProPublica’s investigation. The department also began investigating the oversight and management of doctors hired by insurers who repeatedly denied mental health coverage for patients.

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, Wise, Barry, Cooney and Paige Pfleger of WPLN/Nashville Public Radio contributed to the series. Some of the pieces were published in collaboration with NPR.

“People who need mental health care often cannot get it. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, insured or uninsured, the lack of access is widely felt,” said Ornstein, ProPublica’s managing editor for local. “So many people on our staff wanted to be a part of this project. Through immersive storytelling and investigative digging, they adeptly documented the causes of the crisis, those responsible and the regulators who have stood by and done little to fix it.”

ProPublica received Pulitzers for public service in 2024, national reporting in 2020, feature writing in 2019, public service in 2017, explanatory reporting in 2016, national reporting in 2011 and investigative reporting in 2010. Local Reporting Network partner Anchorage Daily News won the Pulitzer for public service in 2020.