An abortion clinic in Colorado that for more than 50 years served people who looked to terminate their pregnancies in the second or third trimester quietly closed last month.

To fellow travelers, Hannah Brehm likely looked like she was taking a belated babymoon well into her third trimester.

But she and her husband had received a crushing diagnosis: Their baby’s brain was not developing properly, upending their wanted pregnancy. Medical experts warned moving forward would likely mean her son would know only pain and suffering. The Minnesota couple wasn’t going to take that chance.

Instead, they went to Colorado, where for decades the Boulder Abortion Clinic served as a resource for women who looked to terminate their pregnancies in the second or third trimester because of medical reasons, like Brehm, or other circumstances.

After more than 50 years, that clinic quietly closed last month, leaving the U.S. with just a handful that offer abortions after 28 weeks into pregnancy — many on a case-by-case basis.

  • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
    531·
    2 days ago

    But she and her husband had received a crushing diagnosis: Their baby’s brain was not developing properly, upending their wanted pregnancy. Medical experts warned moving forward would likely mean her son would know only pain and suffering. The Minnesota couple wasn’t going to take that chance.

    Yeah so it turns out most people don’t get 6 months into ultrasounds and painting nurseries and making lists of names and planning showers and gender reveal parties then suddenly just decide “…nah!” It’s usually a woman you’re making carry around a dead baby that’s also probably a threat to her life by way of hemorrhage or sepsis

    Weirdly enough I only had my tubes taken out instead of my whole uterus because I thought it would maybe be cool to offer it to some other woman (I can appreciate the “beauty of life” or whatever happening in somebody else’s body). But that kind of program (and those programs do exist, there have been live births from transplanted uteri!) can only exist if the doctors and their patients have full decision-making power over what happens during the process. No doctor in their right mind is going to start that kind of process if there’s a possibility that when something goes wrong (and things always go wrong) the government will just step in and tell them it’ll strip their license for saving moms life (especially since without mom, there’s almost definitely no baby anyway). So it was a nice thought, but I guess I’m keeping it unless my IUD punctures it or something (I just got cramps again tonight for the first time in months too, and preventing them is the main reason I kept the IUD!).

    • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
      9·
      2 days ago

      Wait is that possible? I’d donate my uterus in a heart beat. But I thought since organ transplants are a big deal and you have to be on immuno suppressants for life if you have one, among other issues, the receiver wouldn’t be able to safely be pregnant.