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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA New Front in the Abortion War
On their way to the ultrasound exam, Abbey and Kyle Sanders stopped at Babies"R"Us. They picked out a navy sundress with white flowers for a girl, navy shorts with white stripes for a boy. Close friends were invited over for a "gender reveal" party the next day. Abbey was nearly 20 weeks pregnant.
"It's a little girl," the ultrasound technician said. Abbey started crying. "You're having a daughter!" she said to Kyle. Abbey texted her mother: healthy baby girl. Kyle noticed that the poker-faced technician didn't offer any reassurance about the baby's health.
The doctor walked in. "I'm very concerned," he said, and Abbey's tears turned to sobs. He referred the couple to a high-risk fetal-medicine specialist, who did a more sophisticated ultrasound and found that the fetus's brain was failing to divide and was growing outside the skull, a chamber was missing from the heart, and there was a problem with the kidneys.
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The newlyweds were devastated. The baby's kicks now felt like a torturous reminder that they would never be parents to this child. She was dying. The right thing to do, the moral thing to do, Abbey and Kyle believed, was to terminate the pregnancy. A suction abortion this late in pregnancy could have damaged 29-year-old Abbey's cervix, so four days after the second ultrasound, a doctor injected the baby with a heart-stopping drug,
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Had the law been in place last year, Abbey would have had to continue an agonizing pregnancy, possibly for weeks, and any doctor willing to end it would have risked a felony charge. An early ultrasound and a blood test had detected nothing wrong. Abbey had asked for the second scan at 19 weeks, excited to find out the baby's gender, but the doctor's office urged her to wait a few days. Ultrasounds are typically done at 20 weeks to get a clear look at developing organs, especially the heart. It can take several days, even weeks, to schedule additional tests, weigh the results, and arrange for an abortion. There's only one clinic in Arkansas that provides second-trimester abortions, aside from some private hospitals.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/a-new-front-in-the-abortion-war/280577/
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cali
(114,904 posts)highly recommended.
pansypoo53219
(20,987 posts)NOT EVERY BABY IS A GERBER BABY. and shit happens. kids are expensive.
peace13
(11,076 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)These are the same idiots who would also take all your birth control away. They want every woman to be nothing more than a womb controlled by their unscientific mythology based little laws.
Don't restrict corporation but control every waking moment of a woman's reproductive life seems to be the RepubliCON motto. They Love Corporations but Hate Women.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Depending on the level of care available in an area there is a good chance they could have found out even later. Of course the wackjob right would say that the baby should be born with its head halfway out of its skull and sit in ICU for a week before the poor thing dies. Meanwhile the parents are running up 100 K medical bills, lose their house and end up on welfare. All this because controlling a women's body is priority one for religious zealots.
Hey wackos, if you see this. FUCK YOU!
peace13
(11,076 posts)Her doctor told her that she would have to wait for labor to start on it's own. She could not deal with it. A big dead baby, people asking when her baby was due...oh how beautiful she looked. Her doctor told her that her only recourse was to go to the abortion clinic. She and her husband made the trip. They had to cross the crazies at the picket line. It was a disaster.
She will never forget the words that were yelled and the feelings of despair and pain she felt as a result. There is something seriously wrong with folks who tell other women what to do when they have no idea what the circumstances are. The real problem is that they don't know where their business begins and ends!
KentuckyWoman
(6,690 posts)They just have nothing better to do than make other people miserable.
If they really believed humans have a right to life because they have an eternal soul then this mortal life or death would be completely meaningless. 2 seconds life after fertilization or 105 years on the planet is not much difference to an eternal being.
LuvNewcastle
(16,850 posts)These anti-choice activists are so ridiculous. They think every one of nature's horrible mistakes is a precious life that must be preserved at all costs. Here are the kinds of "life" they want to save:
"Among the disorders that can go undetected until 20 weeks or afterward, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, are anencephaly, a fatal condition in which the brain is missing; renal agenesis, in which missing kidneys also cause death before or shortly after birth; limb-body wall complex, in which the organs are outside the body cavity; hydrocephaly, in which excessive fluid accumulates within the brain; and other severe brain and heart defects."
Is a fetus without a brain even human? I don't think so; at least it isn't my definition of a human. That's an empty shell. It is so cruel to make a woman give birth to something like that just to satisfy these fanatical assholes. It's sickening to think about. Making a woman give birth to something just to watch it die is fucking perverse. How can anyone not see that this should be a personal choice for an individual or a couple to make? You just shouldn't write laws about something so personal.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)and every pregnancy results in joy.
Most babies survive and are healthy. Most babies are a great joy. But couples should not be condemned for making a humane and healthy decision to terminate the pregnancy when there isn't going to be a healthy, surviving baby, when it is going to end without joy and possible with harm to the health not just of the baby but of the mother.
Let's get real. Pregnancies can sometimes although not commonly be very risky.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)who is having twins, will be delivered at 36 weeks on Nov 5th (if not before.) She has been having ultrasounds since she was about a month into the pregnancy. So why did the Dr in this article not let Abbey have an ultrasound earlier? Was it because of the effing insurance company? Or is it because wingers rule in that state, where women are forced to carry their babies full term, regardless of the health of the baby and/or the mother?
LuvNewcastle
(16,850 posts)her doctor advised her to wait until 20 weeks. He said that the development of the fetus would be clearer at that stage. I guess he meant that development is rather ambiguous before 20 weeks. He probably figured she would've needed to have another ultrasound later in order to have a better idea of what the baby would look like. It would have been a waste of money, in other words.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... it's a waste of who's money? Frankly, I think it's negligent if an OB/GYN doesn't order a ultrasound before 4-5 months of gestation.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)So even if she had been receiving weekly ultrasounds for the entire pregnancy, they would not have seen these defects until about this far along.
And in this particular case, an ultrasound one week earlier wouldn't make it less devastating.
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)Heartbreaking... just heartbreaking.
The parents did the right thing, tho...
I am very, very nasty to anyone who says they are against late-term abortion.
"You have no fucking idea what you are talking about."
"None of your fucking business."
"Fucking moron!"
I still hurt from our son having to make that decision, and I like to take out that hurt on the dumb bastards who say every fetus should be born.... regardless of condition.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)
CrispyQ
(36,500 posts)I saw that bumper sticker recently & thought what a succinct way to put it.
These are hateful people.
"The very same folks who are adamant about women not having choice (on abortion) are not equally as adamant about making sure the safety nets are in place for the parents and the children," says Democratic state Rep. Joyce Elliott, who represents a predominantly low-income, black district near Little Rock. "There is a moral imperative to ensure such safety nets are there."
Have you seen that video where some guy goes to some anti-abortion protest & asks some of the women there, how we should punish the woman who had an abortion, if abortion is made illegal. "Should we put her in jail? For how long?" Of the many, many women interviewed, only one said yes. You could tell most of them hadn't even thought about that aspect & that they were very uncomfortable with the idea of jailing the woman. I'm willing to bet, however, that if they had interviewed any men, close to half would support jailing the woman. I say that because I think most anti-choice men are in it for the power over women & they like being punitive & mean, especially to women.
SamYeager
(309 posts)They are firm in their belief that the parents are bing punished by God for some transgression and to allow an abortion goes against God's punishment of them.
dmr
(28,349 posts)There's a lot of heartwrenching decisions being made out there in the real world; and we don't need religious zealots interfering with a woman's right to determine what is best for her, and her family.
Thank you for posting it.
