This Nebraska mom had to leave the state to get life-saving abortion care | The Nebraska Independent
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(Photo credit: Camila Cordeiro / Unsplash)

* Content warning: This article contains descriptions of abortion procedures.

* Lucy, not her real name, spoke with the Nebraska Independent on the condition of anonymity.

When Lucy was 23 weeks pregnant and went in for her scheduled prenatal ultrasound, she had no idea she would end up needing to leave her home state of Nebraska for a life-saving abortion.

The doctor came into the room and told her she had two options: give birth to a stillborn infant while putting her own health at risk or leave the state to end the pregnancy. 

Lucy and her husband are the parents of a toddler. In 2023, Lucy suffered a miscarriage. 

Nebraska has a 12-week abortion ban with exceptions for rape, incest, and if the life of the pregnant person is in danger. Lucy did not qualify for an exception because her life was not in immediate danger.

Lucy’s fetus was diagnosed with Edwards Syndrome, also known as Trisomy 18, a genetic condition that severely delays fetal development. According to the Cleveland Clinic, 95% of fetuses diagnosed with Edwards Syndrome do not survive pregnancy. 

Lucy and her husband made the tough decision to end the pregnancy. They flew to the East Coast, where they have family and where laws allowed for access to abortion care in the later months of pregnancy.

Lucy said one of the hardest parts was arriving at the health care clinic where protesters were outside taunting patients entering the building and trying to intimidate them. 

“I felt myself kind of filling up with anger because this is not a decision women make on a whim,” Lucy said, with tears streaming down her cheeks. “This is something that is real, and especially at 24 weeks. This was a planned pregnancy. This was something I wanted, and to end it was really freaking hard. But it was the right decision.” 

Lucy explained that she had to go into the clinic alone. Her husband was not allowed to come because of the clinic’s policy. The procedure took two days. On the first day, the fetus’ heart was stopped. Lucy said she became very sick afterward and came down with a high fever and severe vomiting. 

On the second day, she had a dilation and curettage (D&C), a surgical procedure that removes the tissue from the uterus. She said when she woke up from the anesthesia the nurse asked if she wanted her fetus’ footprints.

“I knew when Roe v. Wade was overturned that things like this were going to happen. I didn’t think it would happen to me,” she said. “We never think we’re going to be in this position until we are.” 

She added that she’s been pro-choice since college, but never thought these things would affect her directly. 

“And you live in Nebraska where a lot of people think that abortion is murder, and they think that we’re monsters. In reality, we’re just women who had to make really hard choices,” she said. 

Lucy said she’s telling her story because she wants to help women and fight for the ballot measure Protect Our Rights, also known as Initiative 439, an abortion rights measure on the November ballot. The ballot measure would protect the right to an abortion up to the point of “fetal viability,” which is usually around 24 weeks of gestation.

The measure’s text outlines that “fetal viability” is the period at which a fetus can live outside of the uterus without medical intervention and would be determined by “the professional judgment of the patient’s health care practitioner.” It additionally gives the provider the power with their patient to determine exceptions for the health and life of the pregnant person. 

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the number of patients who’ve had to leave their states to receive abortion care has gone from one in five at the start of 2023 to one in ten in 2020. 

Restrictions on abortions pose a dire risk to the health of millions of women and girls across the nation, the United Nations reports

“The conditions of the exceptions often do not reflect medical diagnosis and sometimes exclude health-threatening conditions,” UN experts said in June 2023. “Even in cases where physicians determine that the abortion can go ahead, they may still find it difficult to assemble a full team given the reluctance of other health professionals.”

“The reason why I’m speaking out is I don’t want another woman to have to leave their home to get health care,” Lucy said. “I think that health care is a right, and I think that it’s wrong that they’re trying to take that away from people.”

She added: “I also acknowledge the fact that I have privilege: the fact that I was able to leave, and I was able to find somewhere to go, and I was able to get access. There’s a lot of women out there who don’t have that, who are forced to carry to term babies that they know won’t make it.”

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The Nebraska Independent is a project of American Independent Media, a 501(c)(4) organization whose mission is to use journalism to educate the public, giving them the information they need about local and federal issues.