[“I was told that if I tried to discharge myself, or seek care
elsewhere, that I could be arrested for trying to kill my child” ]
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TEXAS FORCED THIS WOMAN TO GIVE BIRTH TO A STILLBORN SON. SHE’S
SUING  
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Tessa Stuart
May 22, 2023
Rolling Stone
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_ “I was told that if I tried to discharge myself, or seek care
elsewhere, that I could be arrested for trying to kill my child” _

Abortion rights demonstrators march near the State Capitol in Austin,
Texas, June 25, 2022, Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Imagesnone

 

After multiple miscarriages, Kiersten Hogan thought she would never
be able to carry a pregnancy to term. She’d nearly given up hope
when in June 2021 she learned she was pregnant. But at just 19 weeks
— days after Texas [[link removed]]’
Senate Bill 8 went into effect — Hogan woke up at 5 a.m. in
excruciating pain. She called 911 and was instructed to unlock her
front door and lay on the ground until EMTs arrived. “It was the
longest 5 minutes of my life,” Hogan recalled on Monday. 

Her water had broken. By the time she arrived at the hospital, she had
lost too much amniotic fluid for her son to survive — but hospital
staff didn’t tell her that. “They didn’t tell me much about my
son’s chances of survival. But the one thing they did make clear
repeatedly was that I should not leave,” a tearful Hogan said
Monday. “I was told that if I tried to discharge myself, or seek
care elsewhere, that I could be arrested for trying to kill my child.
So of course, I stayed.”

Hogan recounted a harrowing five days inside the hospital, where she
says religious counselors repeatedly came to visit her, even though
she had declined pastoral care. She recalled being terrified of even
going to the bathroom — afraid she would go into premature labor,
and be arrested.

“On the fifth day in the hospital, while using the bathroom, my son
started to enter the birth canal,” Hogan said. “I was rushed to
labor and delivery where I gave birth to him stillborn.” 

The next morning she was discharged, and told she could return to work
the next day, “as if nothing had happened,” Hogan said.

Hogan is one of eight new plaintiffs who joined a lawsuit
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the state of Texas on Monday, seeking clarification about what
qualifies as a medical emergency under Texas’ medieval abortion
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lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the
initial suit in March, asked a district court in Travis County for a
temporary injunction blocking Texas’ abortion bans in cases of
pregnancy complications as the case continues. 

The original suit was filed on behalf of five women who were denied
abortion care and two obstetrician-gynecologists who work in the
state. It challenges the state’s three, overlapping bans: a criminal
ban that pre-dates _Roe v. Wade
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in effect — passed in anticipation of _Roe_ being overturned, and
S.B. 8, an de facto ban on abortion after about six weeks of
pregnancy. All three bans ostensibly include exceptions for medical
“emergencies,” but the laws’ vague language has contributed to
widespread confusion over what qualifies — and stiff penalties that
have made medical providers fearful of offering treatment that could
put them in legal jeopardy. Doctors who are found guilty of providing
an abortion in violation of the bans can face up to 99 years in
prison, a minimum of $100,000 in fines, and the loss of their medical
license.

Among the eight women who joined the lawsuit on Monday, some, like
Hogan, were forced to give birth against their will to children who
survived for vanishingly short periods of time. 

Kylie Beaton learned her child had alobar holoprosencephaly, a
condition that causes the head to grow at an abnormal speed. By the
time she received the diagnosis at 20 weeks, her baby’s head was the
size of a 24-week-old. She was past the cut-off for an abortion in
neighboring New Mexico. By the time she was 28 weeks pregnant, her
baby’s head was the size of a 39-week old fetus. She asked to be
induced, but providers refused, citing the state’s abortion ban. At
35 weeks, Beaton was finally granted a cesarean section. Her son
survived for four days.

Samantha Casiano learned her baby had anencephaly — a condition in
which a fetus develops missing pieces of her brain and skull — at
her 20-week scan. It is a fatal diagnosis. Casiano says she was told
she would have to go through with the pregnancy, prescribed an
antidepressant and sent home. She spent the remainder of her pregnancy
accepting well-wishes from strangers, while planning a funeral for her
daughter. Her daughter lived for four hours after birth.

After Elizabeth Weller’s water broke at 19 weeks, hospital staff
suggested she “pray,” even as they informed her her baby had no
chance of surviving without the amniotic fluid. Weller says she was
first prescribed antibiotics to prevent infection, then told she could
not obtain an abortion because as long as she was on antibiotics she
would be too healthy to necessitate the procedure. Her infection
ultimately worsened, spreading to the placenta and the amniotic fluid,
and the hospital finally induced labor. Her daughter did not survive
the birth.

“It breaks my heart that the state that I love is denying me and my
neighbors lifesaving healthcare, prolonging our grief and mourning —
and for what? Families like mine deserve better,” Weller said on
Monday, “Life is fragile enough. Everyone’s reason for seeking out
an abortion is personal to them and valid."

* abortion rights
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* texas
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