My abortion saved my life
By: Beth Long
Hi there, I hope you’ll read my note about why voting Yes on Issue 1 is so important. After years of infertility, my husband and I were faced with the devastating need for an abortion when I was nearly half way through my pregnancy. But because of Ohio’s extreme abortion ban, my family and I were denied the humane care I need at home. What happened to us could happen to anyone.
I’ve lived in central Ohio my whole life. For as long as I can remember, I’ve pictured raising my children here, taking them to the Columbus Zoo, Columbus Metropolitan library, and all of the wonderful metro parks we have here.
But for me and my husband Kyle, a family didn’t happen right away. After ten years of endless doctors appointments, I was diagnosed with severe stage four endometriosis. I eventually had two grapefruit sized cysts removed, and doctors told me that if I were to get pregnant it needed to happen quickly, before the cysts could grow back.
So we tried. It just wasn’t happening for us. When we saw a reproductive specialist, they said Kyle and I would not be able to conceive on our own. Finally, after years of invasive procedures, three rounds of IVF and many negative pregnancy tests, we saw those two pink lines. I was pregnant. Kyle and I were over the moon.
We successfully transferred one of our only healthy embryos, a baby girl. When we first heard her heartbeat, the doctor told us that our daughter was developing exactly as she should. That’s when I let myself believe, for the first time, that it was happening.
We scheduled the 18 week anatomy scan on my 34th birthday. The ultrasound showed two tiny feet on opposite sides of my abdomen — not at all how a healthy baby sits curled up in the womb. Something was wrong.
Nothing could have prepared me for what we heard next. Our baby girl had “Limb Body Wall Complex,” an extremely rare and fatal condition that has never resulted in a live birth. Every organ, with the exception of her heart, was growing on the outside of our little girl’s body. Our baby would eventually be in pain and die inside of me.
Neither of us were safe, and there was only one humane option: an abortion.
Abortion was our only option, and the government of Ohio took that decision from us. We ultimately had to leave the state for the care we needed.
Kyle and I would’ve done everything we could for our girl. The government dictated what we could or couldn’t do with our daughter and made the most painful thing we have gone through that much more cruel, traumatic, and heartbreaking.
The laws in Ohio are broken. Voting Yes on Issue 1 would ensure that families are able to seek the care they need.
Our deepest wish is that no one will ever have to go through what we did because of inhumane laws in Ohio. There is too much on the line not to act.
