Texas, one of the force-4th-graders-to-have-babies states, saw a sudden and huge spike in infant deaths -- including infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects -- as women are being forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term after Texas banned abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy in 2021.

Some 2,200 infants died in Texas in 2022 -- an increase of 227 deaths, or 11.5%, over the previous year, according to preliminary infant mortality data from the Texas Department of State Health Services that CNN obtained through a public records request. Infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects rose by 21.6%. That spike reversed a nearly decade-long decline. Between 2014 and 2021, infant deaths had fallen by nearly 15%.

Information that reveals a fetus's brain formation and organ development, which doctors begin to test for at around 15 weeks, is now useless in a state that bans abortions after six weeks.

Women like Samantha Casiano, who discovered the fetus she carried had anencephaly 20 months into her pregnancy, was forced to give birth and watch her daughter gasp for air for four hours before the baby died.

'All she could do was fight to try to get air. I had to watch my daughter go from being pink to red to purple. From being warm to cold,' said Casiano. 'I just kept telling myself and my baby that I'm so sorry that this had to happen to you.'

cnn.com - Texas abortion ban infant mortality invs