Austin couple travels out of Texas to get 'medically-necessary' abortion
AUSTIN, Texas - An Austin woman and her husband are speaking out, after they had to travel out of state to get what she says was a medically-necessary abortion. They warn that Texas' abortion law is having devastating consequences for families like theirs.
After two years of struggling with fertility treatments and IVF, last fall Taylor and Travis, who asked us not to use their last name, got the news they thought might never come: Taylor was pregnant.
"We were over-the-moon excited," said Taylor.
The couple named their daughter Phoebe.
"We'd made announcements to everybody in our lives," said Taylor.
But then, at 17 weeks, a scan revealed something was wrong.
An Austin woman and her husband are speaking out, after they had to travel out of state to get what she says was a medically-necessary abortion.
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"I mean, when he told us this baby will not survive, I remember not comprehending the words," said Taylor.
Their daughter had what’s called an encephalocele, essentially a bubble-like structure on the skull, which meant the baby either wouldn’t survive the pregnancy, or would die painfully hours after being born.
"It was heartbreaking," said Travis. "To hear that there's bad news and not only is it bad news, but it's fatal and bad news was just shocking."
"We were left with a horrible decision of what do we do," said Taylor.
Getting an abortion was out of the question in Texas, where an exception to the state’s ban is only allowed if "the pregnant female has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated, caused by or arising from the pregnancy that places the female at risk of death, or substantial impairment of major bodily function."
"If the fetus, the baby, the embryo’s life is in danger and there is a heartbeat, there are no exceptions in the state of Texas," said Travis.
Taylor’s doctors gave them the name of an abortion clinic, but legally couldn’t advise her beyond that. They ended up flying to Colorado.
"We were left completely on our own," said Taylor. "We had to be in public in Colorado and, like, go to get food. We were in a hotel. It just was very bizarre to have to go through the worst thing in your life publicly."
On top of that?
"Because of the laws in Texas, we couldn't use our medical insurance for this procedure. The clinic said that they just have too much trouble processing it. So we had to pay out of pocket for everything," said Taylor.
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Their daughter had what’s called an encephalocele, essentially a bubble-like structure on the skull, which meant the baby either wouldn’t survive the pregnancy, or would die painfully hours after being born.
On the way home, they bought a stuffed bear holding its baby, to remember Phoebe by.
"It’s a lot of grief. I also am very angry. I have a lot of anger towards what happened to me and what I was made to do," said Taylor. "You do feel like kind of like you did something shady on the black market—when you just got health care."
But pro-life groups who helped craft abortion law here in Texas have staunchly defended the ban.
"The child is a human being from that moment of fertilization, they deserve our legal and moral protection," said Rebecca Parma of Texas Right to Life.
"And the bottom line is life won. The body within a woman's body is not that woman's body," said Amy O’Donnell of the Texas Alliance for Life.
"Things are not black and white. There's gray area to everything, and they're hurting real people with this law, whether that was intended or not," said Taylor.
Taylor and Travis hope that by sharing their story, it will help others.
"I'm not an exception. Our story is not an exception. There are thousands of Texas women who are going through this and are left with an impossible decision, and then it's made even worse," said Taylor.
"Sharing the story and hopefully lessening the burden on them a little bit and some of the guilt and shame that they might feel from making these decisions," said Travis.
Despite everything, Taylor and Travis say they’re going to continue trying to have a baby, and plan to raise their child right here in Texas.
"It's important for me to stay put because I want to fight for this," said Taylor. "If we are able to have children in the future, they'll know that they have an older sister. And that's always going to be something we think about every day."