In post-Roe America, women detail agony of being forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term
ABC News interviewed 18 women as part of the series on abortion "On the Brink."
DENTON, Texas, and NEW YORK -- This is Part III of a three-part special ABC News investigation looking at the impact of abortion restrictions in America after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The "Impact by Nightline" broadcast, "On the Brink," with exclusive interviews by Diane Sawyer and Rachel Scott, brings you inside the raw, intimate and overlooked conversations playing out in clinics and exam rooms as the country continues to confront the realities of a post-Roe America. It premieres Dec. 14 on Hulu.
ABC News brought together 18 women from across 10 states who say their medical care was impacted by abortion bans — bringing several of them to the brink of death. All these women had wanted their pregnancies and none of them had initially sought abortion care. These women said they have been turned away in medical emergencies for not being sick enough, had their health care delayed or denied due to state laws, and been told they have to continue their pregnancies despite devastating, fatal diagnoses for their babies, even if their pregnancies put their health at risk.
For many women unable to access care in their own states, traveling to get care in other states is not an option. One of the biggest barriers is cost -- further along in pregnancy, abortion care can get very expensive.
The cheapest option is medication abortion, but it is only an option up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
One maternal fetal medicine specialist -- who told ABC News that she left the state of North Carolina because of its 12-week ban -- said that she often diagnoses fetal anomalies sometime between 18 and 20 weeks of pregnancy because many anomalies cannot be seen earlier in pregnancy.
Kylie Beaton, a woman from Texas who was interviewed by ABC News earlier this year, and her husband had actively been trying to grow their family. The couple was thrilled when Beaton found out she was pregnant.
But at her 20-week ultrasound appointment, the couple learned that the fetus had a rare, severe condition -- called alobar holoprosencephaly -- in which the baby's brain does not develop into two hemispheres. Her baby's head was not developing brain tissue and was filling with fluid.
Their baby would not survive. The couple was devastated.
Texas has a near total abortion ban in effect that doesn't make exceptions for cases of fatal fetal anomalies. Beaton's doctors told her that their hands were tied; she would have to carry her pregnancy to term.
Texas mother forced to carry nonviable pregnancy to term due to abortion bans
Beaton booked an appointment at a clinic in New Mexico, but at a scan days before her scheduled procedure she was told her baby's head had grown too big -- and the clinic would not perform the procedure out of concern that -- based on that measurement -- the fetus had reached 24 weeks of gestation, the clinic's cut off for performing abortions. Beaton was less than 23 weeks along but the fetus' head was measuring much larger than it should have been as it continued to fill with fluid.
Beaton said she was referred to a clinic in Colorado that provides abortion care, but the facility said it would cost between $10,000 to $15,000, not including travel and accommodation. The procedure was financially out of the question for them. So, Beaton had to carry her pregnancy to term. It would have cost $3,500 at the clinic in New Mexico, not including travel or accommodation.
At the time, she called carrying a baby and knowing he would not live, "torture."
After having an emergency cesarean section and spending several days in the hospital, Beaton and her husband took their son home. He died hours later, the couple told ABC News.
According to a lawsuit that Beaton joined, the couple watched their son grow cold in their arms until he died. He could not be held in an upright position, or it would put too much pressure on his head, which was abnormally large. When Beaton delivered, the circumference of her baby's head was measuring at 49 cm; the average head circumference for a newborn is 35 cm, according to the suit.
Kelly’s Story
Impact X Nightline
ABC News' Diane Sawyer and Rachel Scott report on pregnant women with high-risk pregnancies in states that have enforced their own laws since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
'Wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy'
Alyssa Gonzales, 24, said her baby was diagnosed with a severe genetic abnormality called trisomy 18 -- because of the condition, the fetus had two holes in his heart, no nose bone and his brain was not developed. But the Alabama mother of one was denied care in her home state.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Alabama's trigger law banning nearly all abortions went into effect. While the ban makes exceptions for conditions from which an unborn child would come out stillborn, die after birth or die shortly after, Gonzales said doctors still denied her care.
"[Doctors] said he would come out stillborn, he would pass immediately after he was born or he just wouldn't make it to a year -- he wouldn't even make it to his first birthday," Gonzales said.
"[The doctor] said there's nothing that they can do, that I had to have [the baby]," Gonzales said.
Gonzales and her husband, Clay, said they couldn't afford to go out of state. The couple was able to find a fund that would help low-wage workers from southern states with abortion bans to access care.
"We drove about 12 to 15 hours from Valley Head, [Alabama], to Washington, [D.C.], just so I could have a procedure because there were protesters outside of North Carolina. And I'm sorry I'm not going to be a part of negativity whenever I'm doing what's the best-case scenario for my health, for my family's future," Gonzales said.
Gonzales said she was 18 weeks pregnant when they made the trip.
"The clinic there was filled to the brim. Think of a can of sardines, that is how full it was," Gonzales said.
Gonzales said the clinic gave medication to soften the cervix. The clinic then told her it was safe for her to leave -- her water wasn't supposed to break -- and that they would call her when it was time to come back to the clinic.
"They call me, they are ready for me, and I get in the Uber and as soon as I sit down, my water broke. I was in labor," Gonzales said.
Gonzales later made what she said was a tough decision.
"The experience, going through everything with finding out that your child is not going to live ... it inflicted so much trauma on me that I just had a [sterilization]," Gonzales said. "I didn't want any more kids."
"I think back to what happened and I don't ever want to go through that again and I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy," she said.
'I'm not me anymore'
Chloe Partridge, a woman from Phoenix, Arizona, also had to carry her nonviable pregnancy to term.
Partridge was excited when she found out she was pregnant, but that sadness turned to heartbreak just days before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
When she was 23 weeks pregnant, Partridge learned that the fetus had holoprosencephaly, a different form of the same condition Beaton's baby had.
She was scheduled to have an abortion -- an induction of labor -- for medical reasons, but it was canceled when Roe was overturned because the hospital's committee of ethics decided that her pregnancy was not a threat to her life.
Arizona currently has a 15-week ban in effect. Another 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions, with exceptions to protect the mother's life, is before the Arizona Supreme Court.
"Carrying her to term was absolutely horrible. I had to go in public and have people ask me how far along I was, what the gender of my baby is. And I would answer those questions knowing deep down that she wasn't going to make it, that it wasn't a happy pregnancy, that she was suffering inside of me," Partridge said.
"I never really got to grieve while I was pregnant even though that was how I was feeling inside," Partridge said.
Woman describes carrying nonviable pregnancy to term
Partridge said she had scheduled a termination appointment at a clinic in Colorado, but after she shared a post on social media about what she was going through, people began calling the clinic threatening Partridge's life and the lives of clinic staff.
"It wasn't safe for me to try and go out there and, inevitably, I was turned away from all the clinics that I tried going to," Partridge told ABC News.
Partridge watched her baby -- who she named Laila Grace -- die 44 hours after she was born.
"Those two days were absolutely horrible because there was nothing that I could do to protect her, to make her more comfortable besides giving her the pain medicine," Partridge said.
Partridge said people still make hateful comments toward her and tell her she doesn't deserve to be a mother to the child she already has, but Partridge still believes it is important for her to share her story.
"I know that she was sick enough for me to get the termination. She wasn't going to get better ... the doctors weren't wrong," Partridge said.
Chloe details heartbreaking 44 hours with her daughter
In a social media post, Partridge shared what the days after she gave birth were like.
"My milk came in the day after she passed, and I had no baby to feed, the most painful reminder that my baby was gone. I struggle with anxiety every single day now; my body is constantly in fight-or-flight mode," Partridge wrote.
"After watching a piece of my heart die, I'm not me anymore," Partridge wrote.
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