Lizzie Presser

Reporter

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Lizzie Presser covers health, inequality and how policy is experienced at ProPublica. She was previously a contributing writer for The California Sunday Magazine, and her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, This American Life and others. Her story “The Dispossessed,” published in partnership with The New Yorker, won the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting and the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism in 2020. She is a two-time finalist for the Livingston Award and the National Magazine Award.

A Third Woman Died Under Texas’ Abortion Ban. Doctors Are Avoiding D&Cs and Reaching for Riskier Miscarriage Treatments.

Thirty-five-year-old Porsha Ngumezi’s case raises questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to avoid standard care even in straightforward miscarriages.

Texas Lawmakers Push for New Exceptions to State’s Strict Abortion Ban After the Deaths of Two Women

The new legislation, prompted by ProPublica’s reporting, comes after 111 Texas doctors signed a public letter urging that the ban be changed because it “does not allow us as medical professionals to do our jobs.”

Una mujer de Texas murió después de que el hospital dijera que sería un “delito” intervenir en su aborto espontáneo

Josseli Barnica es una de por lo menos dos mujeres de Texas que murieron después de que los médicos demoraran la atención de emergencia. Le contó a su esposo que el equipo de médicos le dijo que no podía actuar hasta que se detuviera el latido fetal.

A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms

It took three ER visits and 20 hours before a hospital admitted Nevaeh Crain, 18, as her condition worsened. Doctors insisted on two ultrasounds to confirm “fetal demise.” She’s one of at least two Texas women who died under the state’s abortion ban.

A Woman Died After Being Told It Would Be a “Crime” to Intervene in Her Miscarriage at a Texas Hospital

Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She’d told her husband that the medical team said it couldn’t act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.

Maylia and Jack: A Story of Teens and Fentanyl

Police knew she was selling fake Percocet but did not stop her. His mother sought the right treatment for his addiction but could not find it. Two teens got caught up in a system unprepared to handle kids on either side of the drug trade.

New Legislation Would Expand Access to Disaster Relief, Provide Help With Titles for Large Number of Black Landowners

The bills come after ProPublica’s reporting on land passed down informally within families, known as heirs’ property. Representing about one-third of Black-owned land in the South, it can be ineligible for aid and vulnerable to forced sales.

We’re Investigating Mental Health Care Access. Share Your Insights.

ProPublica’s reporters want to talk to mental health providers, health insurance insiders and patients as we examine the U.S. mental health care system. If that’s you, reach out.

“I Want the Anger to Be Your Anger”: Bringing a ProPublica Investigation From Page to Screen

For his new documentary, “Silver Dollar Road,” Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck spent years building on ProPublica’s coverage of how Black families are dispossessed of their land. “These were people I knew, these were situations that I knew.”

New Legislation Takes Aim at Hidden Foster Care

A ProPublica-New York Times Magazine story exposed a system with few legal protections for families. A first-of-its-kind bill aims to provide parents with free counsel when child protection workers try to move their kids without going to court.

She Wanted an Abortion. A Judge Said She Wasn’t Mature Enough to Decide.

As abortion access dwindles, America’s “parental-involvement” laws place further restrictions on teenagers — who may need to ask judges for permission to end their pregnancies.

Child Advocates Sue New York Over Proposed Shadow Foster Care System

Child advocates are suing New York for a program they say would create an unlawful shadow foster system that deprives families of their rights, saying a ProPublica investigation made the dangers “abundantly clear.”

A Multimillion-Dollar Settlement for a Young Woman Once Lost in the Shadow Foster System

Days after ProPublica featured Molly Cordell in a story about how a North Carolina county illegally tore her from her family and made her homeless, she got a $4 million settlement.

“They Took Us Away From Each Other”: Lost Inside America’s Shadow Foster System

Across the country, unregulated “shadow” foster care is severing parents from children — who often wind up abandoned by the system that’s supposed to protect them.

The Child Care Industry Was Collapsing. Mrs. Jackie Bet Everything on an Impossible Dream to Save It.

Jackie Thomas was $29,134 in debt and in trouble with state regulators. She hadn’t slept in days. If a judge ruled against her, she’d fail the mothers who could only keep their jobs thanks to the 24-hour child care she offered.

For Years, JaMarcus Crews Tried to Get a New Kidney, but Corporate Healthcare Stood in the Way

He needed dialysis to stay alive. He couldn't miss a session, not even during a pandemic.

Dr. Foluso Fakorede speaks with a patient.

New Bill Aims to End Racial Disparities in Amputations

Informed by a ProPublica article investigating why Black Americans were three times more likely to undergo diabetic amputations, five members of congress are working to fund screening and enhance diagnostics in an effort to save limbs.

Black Landowners Will Benefit From New Funding to Prevent Land Loss

A year after a ProPublica story highlighted problems for landowners who passed down “heirs’ property” without wills, a reformer won a MacArthur “genius” award and a nonprofit organization has received a flood of donations.

Black Diabetics Lose Limbs at Triple the Rate of Others. Here’s How Health Care Leaders Are Starting to Act.

The American Diabetes Association is creating an initiative to fight unnecessary amputations, which a ProPublica investigation found disproportionately affect Black diabetics. Congress, doctors and the public are finally taking notice, too.

The Black American Amputation Epidemic

Black patients were losing limbs at triple the rate of others. The doctor put up billboards in the Mississippi Delta. Amputation Prevention Institute, they read. He could save their limbs, if it wasn’t too late.

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