But when she called, they told her that nausea and vomiting weren't among the symptoms they were looking for. Or, like Hall, they can shell out thousands of dollars to abruptly travel out of state while grieving a lost pregnancy. Before they drove off, Elizabeth paused to do something. Under Texas law, doctors can be sued by almost anyone for performing an abortion. Methotrexate, another abortion-inducing medication, is used to treat ectopic pregnancies as well as rheumatic illnesses, inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis and cancer. Doctors in Texas say they cannot head off life-threatening medical crises in pregnant women if abortions cannot be offered or even discussed. The staff remained vague about what came next, Elizabeth recalls. If youre having severe pain, if youre getting a fever, you need to keep your medical team in the loop, Crawford said. SB 8, which was signed into law by Texas Gov. The Texas abortion "trigger law" will be effective on August 25th, 2022. They were just all shocked, like, Surely, theres an exception for this, Hall said. And it had to smell foul, really bad. In retrospect, Elizabeth says their initial joy felt a little naive: "If it was so easy for us to get pregnant, then to us it was almost like a sign that this pregnancy was going to be easy for us.". But now "your medical provider says that it's illegal and they can't provide it. Midnight came and went in a blur. But in cases of unviable pregnancies in which fetal cardiac activity can still be detected, treatment to remove the expected miscarriage could be considered illegal under Texas laws, Grossman said. "It might even be scary for you to reach out and seek support even mental health support. Cedar River offers specialty care for patients facing lethal fetal abnormalities like anencephaly. You have to suddenly leave for a medical procedure, and you dont know whats going to happen, so despite everything that made me leave, it was a relief to be back home, she said. Recently passed laws make abortion illegal after about six weeks into a pregnancy. More often than not, they just say they lost the baby. Yet under the new law, Dr. Thoppil felt he could not counsel her on terminating the pregnancy. And that 'you can either stay here and wait to get sick where we can monitor you, or we discharge you and you monitor yourself. A wait for fetal death, or her own encroaching illness. And Ogburn, who noted that he was speaking personally and not for the medical school, worries that fears about the Texas laws have already delayed care. The definition of abortion in Texas Health and Safety Code explicitly states an act that is done to "remove an ectopic pregnancy" is not defined as an abortion. However, Mayo said that his reading of the law allows for the use of methotrexate to treat an ectopic pregnancy. However, if the ectopic pregnancy is located in the cervix or on the scar tissue from a cesarean section, the treatment could be the same as an abortion, according to Addante. "Most women would find it extremely difficult and emotionally very challenging. Sept. 20, 2022 Join us for Texas biggest politics and policy event when you buy your tickets today. An IUD can make menstruation irregular, and she did not realize she had conceived until after the six-week mark. The patient lost liters of blood and had to be put on a breathing machine because of the 24-hour delay in care. Dr. Palmer, the obstetrician in Fort Worth, said that one of her patients was trying to get pregnant after the new law went into effect, and she had consensual sex with her partner. After one conversation, the doctor returned to her bedside. But when membranes rupture earlier in pregnancy, particularly before 24 weeks, the chance of a fetus surviving plummets. "It wasn't that the Methodist Hospital was refusing to perform a service to me simply because they didn't want to, it was because Texas law put them in a position to where they were intimidated to not perform this procedure.". But now were forcing someone to continue the pregnancy and go through all the risks of a potentially term delivery and all those potential complications for a pregnancy that has no chance of surviving. But the womans condition can quickly deteriorate, which is why physicians often prefer to offer an abortion. She and her husband booked outrageously expensive last-minute flights, got a hotel and, four days after they got the news that upended their world, flew out of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. . It was just a matter of time before the baby died, or maybe Id have to go through the trauma of carrying to term knowing I wasnt bringing a baby home, said 27-year-old Lauren Hall. "partial-birth" abortions, medical abortions, the stage of a pregnancy at which an abortion can be performed, and informed consent related to abortions. "At first I was really enraged at the hospital and administration," she says. They told her the signs of a more severe infection would include a fever of 100.4 degrees and chills. These terms are left vague or undefined. But those numbers have skyrocketed since Roe v. Wade was overturned. But it was the only choice they had to save this young woman. She eventually agreed, and the treatment was begun as soon as an abortion was performed. In the meantime, Grossman said the delay and denial of care will likely become more common. We usually have our moms register for delivery at this point. It went into effect on Sept. 1. Hall had to travel to Washington state for an abortion after receiving a lethal fetal diagnosis, for which Texas abortion laws make no exception. The new law in Texas bans abortion at 6 weeks when a fetal "heartbeat" can be detected. If Elizabeth exhibited enough of them, then it would be possible to document the encroaching infection, and therefore terminate the pregnancy under the law's "medical emergency" clause, he said. Hall declined those services. "We shouldn't have been celebrating," Elizabeth says. "I can tell that she's been beat down, because she has been trying to fight for me all day, advocating on my behalf," Elizabeth says. Dr. Lauren Thaxton, an OB-GYN and assistant professor at the Dell Medical School at the University of Texas-Austin, has already heard about local patients who have been miscarrying, and couldn't get a pharmacy to fill their misoprostol prescription. Carrying the pregnancy to term would be emotionally grueling and would also raise the mothers risk of blood clots and severe postpartum bleeding, the doctor warned. "That's torture to have to carry a pregnancy which has such a low chance of survival," says Dr. Peaceman. As a clinic that offers second-trimester abortions, Cedar River Clinics in the Renton, Washington has always seen a good number of patients from states with more restrictive laws, said clinic communications director Mercedes Sanchez. ", And at this particular point in her life, pregnant for the first time at age 26, it was still somewhat abstract: "I had not been put in a position to where I had to weigh the real nuances that went into this situation. They don't want to get sucked into a legal morass. Sept. 1, 1989. I'm so sorry,'" Elizabeth says. by Mara Mndez But interpretation of the laws is still causing challenges to care. Its also had to heighten security since Roe was overturned, Sanchez said, the clinics have seen more and more aggressive protesters, including people from out-of-state like those Hall faced. "To them my life was not in danger enough.". And she just recklessly and negligently goes out and gets abortions all willy-nilly, left and right," she says. But Im still so angry I had to leave.. ", Her waters had broken, launching her into what she calls a "dystopian nightmare" of "physical, emotional and mental anguish." Health & Safety Code 245.002(1)(A)-(C). . And she says 'Yes. In Texas, the second-largest state in the nation, legal abortion immediately ceased to be an option except to save the life of the pregnant patient. Elizabeth could not receive the medical care she needed until several days later because of a Texas law that banned abortion after six weeks. "Because I didn't want anybody to tell me they did not believe me," she says. Which sounds extreme, but Roe had just been overturned. hide caption. The near-total ban on abortion in Texas meant that the doctors couldn't do anything to remove the unviable fetus unless Amanda's life was at risk. After Hall made it through the protesters and the clinics security screening, the clinic itself was an oasis, she said. But pregnancy care isnt as clear cut as the law makes it out to be, doctors say, and fear of criminal prosecution has led medical professionals to delay or deny care they otherwise would have provided. And at least one Texas pharmacy has let area physicians know that they would no longer dispense methotrexate, the medication used to treat ectopic pregnancy, citing the law. Marlena Stell always wanted a big family. She called her doctor and begged to get in. It was because of the state law which forbids termination of a pregnancy as long as there is fetal cardiac activity. The abortion clinic is less than a mile from Texas, where abortion is illegal. "He and I kept telling each other 'What is the whole point of the Hippocratic oath to do no harm?'" Texas is the state weve seen the biggest increase from, Sanchez said. Julia Robinson for NPR Dr. Ingrid Skop, a San Antonio obstetrician and member of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, during a House Oversight Committee hearing in September. Texas abortion laws penalize the person who performs an abortion and, under a state law from 1925, anyone who furnishes the means for an abortion. How theyd told their families, picked out a name, built a crib and bought pink sheets. 245.002. Treatments for certain pregnancy complications are distinct from abortions under Texas laws, experts say, but confusion has already limited some patients access to life-saving procedures and medicines. Wade and the return of laws governing abortion legality to the states. 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