State lawmakers ‘don’t see the mourning and the grieving that these moms’ experience after getting a heartbreaking diagnosis, Breanna Cecil tells Kelly Rissman
A Tennessee woman who was denied an abortion despite a fatal abnormality says the state’s anti-abortion laws resulted in her losing an ovary, a fallopian tube and her hopes for a large family.
“The state of Tennessee took my fertility from me,” Breanna Cecil, 34, told The Independent. She added that state lawmakers “took away my opportunity to have a family like my own biological family because of these horrible laws that they put in place.”
The mother-of-one said she has not felt the same since her doctor told her in January 2023 that her fetus was diagnosed with acrania, a fatal condition where the fetus has no skull bones.
Then, 12 weeks pregnant, Ms Cecil was getting her first ultrasound. She attended the appointment alone, so when the doctor told her the fetus was not viable outside the womb, she was left with only asking the doctor what she should do.
However, she was left with few options. The state’s near-total abortion ban prevents anyone from getting an abortion if there is still a heartbeat - which her fetus still had.
The law makes no exceptions for fatal conditions and also criminalizes physicians who perform the procedure outside of the allowed exceptions.
I know this is preaching to the choir here, but this is so gross across the board.
My wife and I struggled to have our kid. That process is brutal. A lot of women miscarry. A lot of women have unviable pregnancies–like this. An obvious-to-everyone-but-conservatives outcome to banning abortions is that women will lose their ability to have children(like this) or worse they’ll die.
My wife has a very high likelihood of miscarriage. Miscarriages can cause all sorts of issues and sometimes doctors need to go in and clear stuff out (this is considered an abortion). If that doesn’t happen, my wife could 1. Die 2. Lose her ovaries/uterus/fallopian tube 3. Never have a chance at more kids again.
Abortions mean people have have happy healthy families. Abortions mean women can bring children into this world.
We were lucky we didn’t have to go down that path, but it’s a serious risk if we try to have another kid.
People act like women go get abortions for shits and giggles. Fuck anyone voting against women.