Doctors have told us they’ve seen their colleagues hesitate to treat deadly conditions like preeclampsia and cancer, worried that their attempts to protect their pregnant patients could be interpreted as a crime against the fetus, punishable by prison time. 

Defenders of abortion bans insist that those doctors are being misled or are confused, and that so-called “life-of-the-mother” exceptions are clear. But even a Republican lawmaker who voted for his state’s ban, a doctor himself, told ProPublica he thinks the language is too vague. 

So far we’ve reported on the deaths of four pregnant women: Amber Thurman, Candi Miller, Josseli Barnica and Neveah Crain; they raise critical questions about the role that state abortion bans are playing in the decisions of doctors in emergency situations. 

The more cases like these we examine, the more we can do to expose the cracks through which women are falling. If other families have experienced losses like these, only the people closest to them know the most critical details. This is why we’ve devoted a significant portion of our newsroom to examining preventable maternal deaths — and it’s why we need your help to unearth these cases, so that those with the power to change systems can learn from them.

Cities are increasingly removing, or “sweeping,” homeless encampments. Some say it’s a way to get people inside. But 135 people told ProPublica that sweeps made it harder to survive, find housing and get or keep jobs. While reporting on the ground in 11 cities, we asked people to tell us what they’d lost in the sweeps. 

We repeatedly heard stories about ashes being taken. Teresa Stratton, 61, said her husband’s ashes were taken when city contractors swept through a park in Portland, Oregon. City officials said they didn’t see an urn in photos taken by workers but that the ashes could have been thrown away. 

Many cities only store items that cleanup crews deem valuable and in good condition, meaning things like letters and photos can be discarded. In interview after interview, people said the loss of these belongings stuck with them the most.