{"id":1502,"date":"2024-02-14T15:43:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T15:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/14\/fleeing-under-the-cover-of-darkness-how-idahos-abortion-ban-is-changing-pregnancy-in-the-state\/"},"modified":"2024-02-14T15:43:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T15:43:56","slug":"fleeing-under-the-cover-of-darkness-how-idahos-abortion-ban-is-changing-pregnancy-in-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/14\/fleeing-under-the-cover-of-darkness-how-idahos-abortion-ban-is-changing-pregnancy-in-the-state\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Fleeing under the cover of darkness\u2019: How Idaho\u2019s abortion ban is changing pregnancy in the state"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jen and John Adkins never expected to have to send <\/strong>a package like this. <\/p>\n

They were far from their home in Caldwell, Idaho, a suburb of Boise, after a surreal six-hour drive up Interstate 84 to Portland, Oregon. <\/p>\n

Idaho\u2019s abortion laws meant they had to seek care across state lines after receiving devastating news about a much-wanted pregnancy. <\/p>\n

Stories like theirs have become increasingly common, as Jen and several other plaintiffs laid out in a lawsuit filed against the state of Idaho in September. <\/p>\n

Dr. Julie Lyons, a family medicine physician across the state in Hailey, near Sun Valley, who\u2019s also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said she now discusses \u201clife flight insurance\u201d with pregnant patients in their first prenatal visits, in case they have a pregnancy complication that doctors can\u2019t treat in Idaho. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit terrifying to know that we can\u2019t practice our full scope, that we are now needing to manage and triage patients, often outside of the state, to get the reproductive health care that they need,\u201d Lyons said. <\/p>\n

Six generations of Idahoans<\/h2>\n

The Adkinses had hoped for better from the state they loved. John\u2019s family goes back six generations in Idaho, and they\u2019re raising their 2-year-old son here. <\/p>\n

Last year, they were overjoyed to learn that he was going to be a big brother; they\u2019d always wanted a big family. But 12 weeks into the pregnancy, their plans were shattered during a routine ultrasound. <\/p>\n

A genetic counselor and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist told Jen that it was very likely the fetus had Turner syndrome, <\/strong>a disorder in which a baby assigned female at birth is born with one missing or partial X chromosome. <\/p>\n

Research shows that it results in miscarriage in more than 90% of cases and can cause abnormalities in the heart and kidneys, restricted growth and \u2014 most clear to Jen \u2014 excess fluid around the neck, called cystic hygroma, and severe swelling or edema, called hydrops. <\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially, they were surprised I was still pregnant, based on the severity of what they were seeing on the ultrasound,\u201d Jen recalled. <\/p>\n

The doctors told her they expected her to have a miscarriage, Jen said, but they didn\u2019t know when. And, she says they told her, \u201cThe longer you stay pregnant, the more at risk you are of developing complications of your own.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said they were worried about something called mirror syndrome, meaning she could also experience edema, high blood pressure and preeclampsia, which she says she was told could all be life-threatening. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I asked the question: \u2018You know, then, what\u2019s our option here?\u2019\u201d Jen said. \u201cAnd they said, \u2018well, because you\u2019re in the state of Idaho, we cannot provide a termination for you. We cannot provide an abortion.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Sent home to grieve\u2019<\/h2>\n

It had been less than a year since Idaho\u2019s trigger abortion ban took effect, a law put into place in 2020 that would outlaw abortion in almost all circumstances if Roe v. Wade was overturned, as the US Supreme Court did in 2022. The law contains an exception for the life of the pregnant person but not for circumstances like Jen\u2019s, where her health was at risk but her life wasn\u2019t immediately threatened. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was sent home to grieve and mourn and call around to see if we could get an appointment out of state,\u201d Jen said. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s how she and John ended up making the drive to a clinic in Portland, a trip they said ultimately cost more than $1,500 for travel and the procedure itself, which they could afford only with the help of two abortion access funds as well as family. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor folks like us \u2014 you know, we\u2019re regular Americans,\u201d said John. \u201cWe don\u2019t have those kinds of readily available liquid funds.\u201d <\/p>\n

The cost took him by surprise, he said. But that\u2019s not all. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were really afraid that we were breaking the law by seeking this help,\u201d John said. \u201cWe honestly felt like we were fleeing and had to do so under the cover of darkness. It was a really, really bizarre feeling \u2026 like we\u2019re criminals that have to hide from the state.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s legal in Idaho for adults to travel to another state for an abortion. <\/p>\n

Jen said she and John also wanted to have testing on the fetus done to try to ensure that what had happened with this pregnancy wasn\u2019t likely to happen again. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted absolute certainty that this was a fluke thing \u2026 that this wasn\u2019t some genetic condition that we created by our two genes mixing together,\u201d Jen said. \u201cWe felt it would be irresponsible of us to try again without trying to get as much information as we could.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s how she ended up rushing out of the clinic in Portland, still feeling the effects of the anesthesia, carrying that package. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t know exactly what they could and couldn\u2019t do for us,\u201d John said. \u201cThey gave us basically a kit.\u201d <\/p>\n

It contained the \u201cproduct of conception,\u201d he explained \u2014 the remains of \u201cthis child that we wanted.\u201d <\/p>\n

They had to ship it that afternoon, they were told, \u201cor they won\u2019t be able to test it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cSo my memory is of walking into that first Walgreens and holding a brown paper bag that had our child in it and all the hopes and dreams and everything we wanted,\u201d John said. \u201cIt was just such an ugly, dehumanizing experience that we didn\u2019t need to have. It didn\u2019t need to be that way.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jen said they asked her doctors what the experience would have been like if it had happened before Roe v. Wade was overturned and Idaho\u2019s trigger law took effect. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018we would have referred you to a private clinic in downtown Boise,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cThey would have done all the testing themselves, and it would have been a much more humane and dignified experience, and we would have been able to be around friends and family.\u201d <\/p>\n

Still, the Adkinses were able to get the testing done in time. The results confirmed \u201cwhat our doctors had already diagnosed,\u201d that \u201cthis is Turner syndrome; it just happens at conception.\u201d <\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t at any higher risk than anyone else of having it happen again, they discovered. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother maternal-fetal medicine specialist said, you know, \u2018lightning struck your pregnancy,\u2019\u201d Jen said. \u201cIt certainly felt that way.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018An ethical and moral dilemma\u2019<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s not just patients who are feeling the effects of Idaho\u2019s abortion law. Lyons, the family medicine doctor in Hailey, said many of her colleagues who treat higher-risk pregnant patients have left the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany of my colleagues felt like they could not practice the standard of care in Idaho anymore and that they were put into an ethical and moral dilemma as to how to help a woman who is in crisis,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

As of May 2022, there was one ob\/gyn for about every 3,100 women of reproductive age in states where abortion is legal, compared with one for about every 4,500 in states where it is banned. Estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics capture employment data for obstetricians and gynecologists from 40 states;\u00a0Idaho is among the 10 states that do not have data. Of those 10, abortion is banned in five states, it remains legal in four, and one has a gestational limit. <\/p>\n

The lawsuit from <\/strong>Jen Adkins, Lyons and other patients and their doctors, which was filed by the advocacy organization the Center for Reproductive Rights, seeks clarity on the medical exceptions in Idaho\u2019s abortion bans. Lyons\u2019 employer, St. Luke\u2019s health system, is not a party to the suit. <\/p>\n

The statement disputed claims that doctors are leaving the state because of the law. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no evidence that there are fewer doctors in Idaho today than before these laws were put in place,\u201d the statement said. \u201cOur healthcare system is stronger and better serves women and children when our doctors prioritize saving two lives rather than prioritizing abortion on demand.\u201d <\/p>\n

There are no legal restrictions on abortion in Oregon. <\/strong>Before the move, Lee said, he had \u201csome very targeted conversations regarding the potential legal exposures given the abortion ban. \u2026 I did have some serious concerns about the impact upon patient care and the potential conflict between providing appropriate medical care to my patients \u2026 and violating Idaho law.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he\u2019d \u201cstrongly disagree\u201d with any assertion that doctors and other health-care providers in his field aren\u2019t leaving the state. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is absolutely not my impression during my brief time in practice in Idaho,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said two of the maternal-fetal medicine specialists, referred to as MFMs, in the practice he joined six months ago had left before he arrived, \u201creportedly due to the abortion ban,\u201d and that \u201cthe other established MFM <\/strong>practice in town only has minimal staffing currently due to the departure of several of their MFMs prior to my arrival.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n
    <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

    \u201cI think the math is clear that MFM subspecialists have been leaving Idaho,\u201d he said, and that \u201chas significantly impacted access to care for high-risk pregnancy services \u2013 in a state\/region in which access to these services had been already limited.\u201d <\/p>\n

    Jen has experienced that impact herself, she said, as she and John are now expecting again. <\/p>\n

    \u201cWe are already experiencing canceled appointments and rescheduled appointments and going to different clinics because of availability,\u201d Jen said. \u201cThe availability of just regular routine appointments has become scarce.\u201d <\/p>\n

    Fortunately, John added, \u201ceverything looks good now.\u201d <\/p>\n

    But anxiety remains. <\/p>\n

    \u201cI have friends that are pregnant at the same time as me here in the state, and we all kind of share the same sentiment,\u201d Jen said. \u201cWe all just hope that we get through this pregnancy unscathed.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

    This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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