At age 31, my husband and I discovered that the second child we’d planned for was a cancerous molar pregnancy. Thus began a 6-month ordeal of two D and C’s and 4 months of chemo to rid myself of the cancer in my body and save my uterus to enable me to have more children, which I desperately wanted. What was the darkest time in my life was made possible to endure by the very fact that all I had to do was show up and allow the doctors to do whatever they needed to my body in order to save my life. I can not imagine the terror of not being able to get that medical care. We are already seeing in TX that life-saving care is being compromised due to OB’s who are afraid of being sued. Methotrexate, one of the chemo drugs I was on, is also being limited in trigger law states because pharmacists fear being sued. My heart breaks for every woman in these trigger law states who is at risk of dying, and whose deep trauma will only be compounded.
I was able to have two more daughters after my treatment for Gestational Trophoblastic Disease and those life-saving abortions. I grew up deep in Evangelical America, and I ask those who are celebrating this Court’s decision—really think about the results of this. This is going to kill so many women and yes, it will impact you too. This will not just impact other people out there. It will affect you.