The American Society of Magazine Editors announced Thursday that ProPublica won two of its 2025 National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellies, honoring excellence in print and digital media.
ProPublica won the award for general excellence in the news, sports and entertainment category — a first for the organization. Judges commented: “No print or digital magazine had a greater impact on public policy and our national debate than did ProPublica in 2024. ProPublica’s investigations into subjects ranging from deadly restrictions on reproductive care to homelessness, wrongful criminal convictions to pollution, held the powerful to account time and again. And the site did so with engaging storytelling, built around vividly drawn characters and clear descriptions of complex topics, often aided by artful graphics and illustrations.”
A trio of pieces in the “Life of the Mother” series won the public interest award: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable” by Kavitha Surana and “A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms” by Lizzie Presser and Surana are a part of an ongoing investigation into the unexamined, irreversible consequences of state abortion bans.
Reporters mined hospital and death records in Georgia and Texas, whose strict abortion bans threatened physicians with prosecution. They uncovered a tragic consequence: the preventable deaths of two women who did not receive routine treatment for pregnancy complications.
Stacy Kranitz’s immersive photo essay, “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” documented the unraveling of a family after a denied abortion for a life-threatening pregnancy. The piece, reported with Surana, helped audiences see, feel and understand how decisions made by those in power impact families.
ASME judges commented: “This series of articles exemplifies in-depth, powerful storytelling, made possible by rarely achieved levels of trust between sources and journalists. The photography, which showed families’ most vulnerable moments, is realistic without being voyeuristic; the design, purposefully simple, seamlessly shifting the reader’s focus between words and images. Empathetic and gripping, the series demonstrates personal and systemic motivations, challenges and consequences.”
ProPublica’s findings were inescapable as voters contemplated ballot initiatives to expand abortion access, which largely passed. They resounded through presidential campaign speeches and debates, congressional and court hearings and demonstrations from Georgia to Minnesota to New York.
More than 100 Texas doctors signed a letter in response to the reporting, urging reforms of their state laws.
Texas Republicans have proposed changes to the state’s strict abortion ban they say would make clear that doctors can terminate pregnancies for serious medical risks without having to wait until a patient’s condition becomes imminently life-threatening.
The bill represents a remarkable 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 said last year that exceptions for medical emergencies were “plenty clear.” Texas’ governor and lieutenant governor have signaled support for the bill.
Another bill pending in Texas would allow the committee investigating maternal deaths to review those due to abortion or a miscarriage if an abortion procedure or medication was administered. Currently, state law prohibits the committee from studying such deaths.
The reporting also spurred action in Congress, where 41 senators introduced a resolution calling on hospitals to provide emergency abortion care when patients need it. Four members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability demanded a briefing from Texas’ health department on why its maternal mortality review committee is skipping two years of deaths, including ones containing cases ProPublica reported.
The Senate Finance Committee opened an investigation that resulted in a report that showed how hospitals have been “conspicuously and deliberately silent” in the face of abortion bans, giving doctors little guidance on how to stabilize emergency patients with pregnancy complications. The committee released hundreds of pages of internal hospital policies and protocols, creating a rare opportunity for doctors to compare how their institutions handle bans and advocate for better practices.
See a list of all of this year’s National Magazine Award winners.
