“My wife should still be here. Her death was preventable,” Ngumezi, now 39, told the Texas Observer in February. “This law came and disrupted the medical system and took my college sweetheart away from me. Now my boys are forced to live without a mother.”
Since Porsha’s death, the Houston-area airline engineer has sought to turn his grief into activism, sharing his story far and wide with the goal of preventing another tragedy. His mission feels cathartic, and it serves as a way to honor his late wife.
But Ngumezi said the pain of losing Porsha has been “retriggered” since he learned in 2024 that a state health committee tasked with reviewing cases of women who died during pregnancy or childbirth would skip analyzing data from 2022 and 2023—the two years including and following the fall of Roe v. Wade at the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court and the enforcement of the state’s criminal abortion ban. The year 2022 also marks the first full year after Texas passed Senate Bill 8, the state’s earlier ban that relied on civil litigation for enforcement and took effect the prior fall. The committee’s decision meant it would not investigate Porsha’s death.
Instead, the forthcoming report of the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee (MMRC), due September 1, will leapfrog those pivotal years and focus on cases from 2024, leaving those eager to assess the immediate impact of the state’s abortion bans frustrated. The 23-member committee is composed largely of physicians in various fields as well as nurses, health researchers, and two community roles. The members are appointed by the head of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), who is in turn appointed by the leader of the state’s Health and Human Services Department, a position chosen by Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Dr. Jennifer Shuford, who led DSHS starting in late 2022, was appointed by President Trump in April to serve as deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and an interim commissioner now holds the DSHS role. The MMRC issues biannual reports that offer recommendations to the Texas Legislature about how to reduce maternal deaths through policy, but, as the 2027 session looms, they’ll do so based on a partial picture.
“I feel embarrassed and ashamed that our state isn’t doing what it should to investigate these deaths,” said Ngumezi. “How are they going to meaningfully find a solution? They are not holding themselves accountable. … It triggers memories of how those in charge didn’t really care about my wife or her life.”
Welcome to fascism. You’ve got about another 50 years of it.