Republicans Have Put My Life In Danger
The reversal of Roe v. Wade's protections could kill me.
When I was 18, my boyfriend asked me to marry him. I thought it was a brilliant idea and three days later we married one another on the beach. The ceremony took place three months after I graduated high school. We welcomed our son Aidan into our family a year and four months later.
I was 19 when Aidan was born. The pregnancy wasn’t awful, aside from the terrible morning sickness and heartburn. Yes, he was a hairy little beast.
The end of the pregnancy was a little dicey. He was overdue and I had to go to the hospital several times a week to make sure he was okay. I went into labor at 41.5 weeks but I didn’t progress and he was delivered via c-section. Although I didn’t have high blood pressure during my pregnancy, I did suffer from it in the years after.
It became apparent to me that I didn’t want any other children. I dealt with severe abdominal pain throughout my 20s and was later told there was a high probability that I had endometriosis. I also developed fibroid tumors. Aidan was a brilliant, high-maintenance child and sucked up all of the energy I had left. He was also perfectly content being an only child.
That’s an understatement, actually.
When he was about 8, we joked that we were having another baby and he cried. I was also thrilled that we’d still be really young when he went to college, so we’d have plenty of time to travel together without worrying about soccer games and school deadlines. Life had other plans.
SURPRISE!
Alex and I were very careful with birth control for the next 13 years. Then one day I noticed I was late (literally one day late). I called my best friend and asked her if she thought 24 hours after a missed period was too early to take a pregnancy test. She laughed and said it probably was. Still, I was STRESSED.
I bought a pregnancy test and took it. I knew before I even looked at it that I was pregnant. Everyone was thrilled, and when the shock wore off, I was happy too (so was Aidan). I’d just turned 33.
Unlike Aidan’s pregnancy, this one was not easy. I had preexisting high blood pressure that was controlled by medication but about 20 weeks in, I noticed that my meds were no longer doing the job. My doctor blew it off, telling me it was normal. I continued to express concerns but he didn’t listen to me.
Trouble Begins
One day, when I was about 27 weeks pregnant, I went in for a normal visit and the physician’s assistant told me that my blood pressure was extremely high. She wanted an ambulance to transport me to the emergency room but I refused. I called a family member and asked her to drive me instead since my husband was at work.
The PA probably saved my life. I went to the hospital, met a new doctor, switched to his practice and he started monitoring my blood pressure. At 29 weeks, I noticed my blood pressure was very high again, despite the new meds I was on. I took it every hour that night and it remained about 160/90 (a normal BP is 120/80). The next morning I went to the hospital and I was admitted for the first time.
By nighttime, my blood pressure was 225/116. My doctor gave me multiple emergency medications but told me that if he couldn’t control it, he was going to have me life-flighted to Tampa General Hospital, about 45 minutes away. Fortunately, it finally came down.
I stayed in the hospital for several days and I was released with more meds. At this point, I was taking meds nine times a day.
A week later, I was back in the hospital. That time, my doctor ordered me to be placed on magnesium sulfate (basically the IV form of Epsom salt) and I received steroid shots to help the baby’s lungs develop. My physician spoke to the maternal fetal medicine specialists at Tampa General and they all decided that they would deliver the baby if they couldn’t reduce my blood pressure. I was 30 weeks pregnant at the time (10 weeks early).
Four Weeks of Hell and Terror
The baby did not come that night or the next or the next….. I was put on complete bed rest and had to go to the hospital every other day for tests.
The goal was 34 weeks.
I stopped counting time by weeks at that point and focused on hours. Every hour that I managed to keep him in me was a win. At 34 weeks and one day, my doctor performed a c-section and Nathan was born. He was 5.8 pounds, much smaller than the 11.1-pound baby I’d delivered 14 years earlier. He was whisked away to the neo-natal ICU where he remained for the next several weeks.
Back in the delivery room, things were not going well. I heard my doctor grunting. He told someone to biopsy something. Then he continued to grunt. I cannot express the fear you feel when you hear your very experienced doctor making sounds of frustration while trying to perform a tubal ligation (tied tubes, in laymen’s terms) on you. We’d agreed before the birth that I would have the procedure done to prevent further pregnancies.
When my doctor started grunting, I said, “That’s fine, close me. I’ll take birth control.”
The doctor continued for a few moments and I repeated my request. He asked if I was sure and I said, “Absolutely.” At that point, my blood pressure was increasing again. The doctor closed my incision and I went off to recovery, where I was put on magnesium sulfate again. My husband told me that my doctor, who was always very calm, walked out of the delivery room and updated him. He said the doc was shaking and speaking in Spanish to him quickly, telling my husband that I could not have more children.
“Suicide By Baby”
My doctor spoke to me later that day. I asked him why he was shaking when he talked to Alex and he responded bluntly, “You scared me. If you ever get pregnant again, it will be suicide by baby. In fact, if you ever get pregnant, don’t even come to me, just go straight to Tampa.”
The statement stunned me.
In the weeks that followed, I spent every moment in the NICU with Nathan. I also got a birth control implant in my arm (that’s a story for another day) and I came to terms with the fact that I would never have another baby. It’s ironic, I thought I didn’t want more kids until I had Nathan and then there was nothing I wanted more than a third. But that wasn’t possible. I knew my doctor was dead serious when he issued that warning.
Republicans Are Killing Women
Four years later, the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and in 2024, a six-week abortion ban went into effect in Florida. While there are exceptions for the health of the mother, we’ve all seen how that has gone for women around the country. Amber Nicole Thurman died in Georgia, several hours away from me, after she was denied life-saving care for hours.
In Texas, anti-abortion zealot Dr. Ingrid Skop was appointed to serve on the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee. She signed an affidavit that said Kate Cox didn’t qualify for an abortion under the state’s medical exception even though her pregnancy was not viable. Cox traveled out of state for an abortion. There are dozens more stories of women dying or suffering long-term health problems as a result of their state denying them a necessary abortion.
Abortion is on the ballot again. Donald Trump might say he won’t sign a national ban, but he wouldn’t have to. Republicans (including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) have made it clear that they will use the Comstock Act to restrict abortion further.
Also, Trump is a liar.
The reality is, that if I were to get pregnant again, I would have to travel out of state to terminate the pregnancy. I wouldn’t have a choice. If Florida forced me to carry a pregnancy to term, I would die. My doctor told me that I would die. I almost died the last time. Countless other women are in the same predicament.
Vote like your life depends on it because it just might.
But even if I cannot become pregnant because I am past that age, I can care about all those women who are of an age who, for whatever reason, don’t want to remain pregnant.
If there's a national abortion ban, this could be happening hundreds of times a day across the country. Thousands if not, tens of thousands of women could lose their lives in a year in the United States.
Who in their right mind would condone this?
I worked in healthcare and I attended multiple high-risk deliveries. It's no laughing matter.