--- title: What It Really Means to Get an Abortion After ‘Fetal Viability’ | TIME description: Even in states where abortion is legal, many restrict the procedure after 'fetal viability.' Here's what that means and why some abortions happen later in pregnancy. canonical: https://time.com/video/YU8cm8hm/ og:title: What It Really Means to Get an Abortion After ‘Fetal Viability’ og:description: Even in states where abortion is legal, many restrict the procedure after 'fetal viability.' Here's what that means and why some abortions happen later in pregnancy. og:url: https://time.com/video/YU8cm8hm/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YU8cm8hm/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What It Really Means to Get an Abortion After ‘Fetal Viability’ twitter:description: Even in states where abortion is legal, many restrict the procedure after 'fetal viability.' 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: What It Really Means to Get an Abortion After ‘Fetal Viability’ [Watch (HLS stream): What It Really Means to Get an Abortion After ‘Fetal Viability’](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YU8cm8hm.m3u8) (9:23)  _Published 2024-12-06. Even in states where abortion is legal, many restrict the procedure after 'fetal viability.' Here's what that means and why some abortions happen later in pregnancy._ --- Dec 6, 2024 7:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Late Chicago Abortion Doctor Under Fire After Thousands of Fetal Remains Found in His Garage, Trunk](/video/lU3LLkMc/) ### Late Chicago Abortion Doctor Under Fire After Thousands of Fetal Remains Found in His Garage, Trunk [Argentina's Senate Rejects Historic Bill to Legalize Abortion](/video/AHvMjbta/) ### Argentina's Senate Rejects Historic Bill to Legalize Abortion [American Support For Legal Abortion Is Up After Rocky Year](/video/ayOSXdCh/) ### American Support For Legal Abortion Is Up After Rocky Year --- ## Transcript September 2022, I had my anatomy scan, and I found out that there were some problems with my baby. It took me a couple weeks to figure out the full extent of that because I live in a real state like Montana, I had to travel out of state to get more advanced maternal care. And so that really delayed my diagnostic timeline. At 24 weeks, I got the full diagnosis. My son had a condition called Eagle Barrett syndrome, which affects the development of the renal system, the abdominal muscles, potentially the diaphragm. And we realized that this was really not a viable pregnancy. And so we decided to have an abortion the pregnancy. Several years ago, I was pregnant with my son, Teddy. It was a planned and deeply wanted pregnancy that was progressing. Without issue, and I had a routine ultrasound around 32, 33 weeks. And during that ultrasound, I learned that he had suffered from a catastrophic stroke in utero, and he would either die in utero or be consigned to a life however brief of pain and suffering. Um, so, at that point in time, I was a patient at Mass General Hospital in Boston, and I was denied care. Because I live in Montana, abortion is safe and legal in Montana, but because of the Armstrong amendment that we currently have in our Constitution, abortion is banned at viability. So seeking care in my home state was not an option. And this was several months post Dob's decision in 2022. And so a lot of the clinics who could give third second trimester and third trimester abortion care were overwhelmed with clinics, excuse me, with patients from out of state because their timelines had been pushed out too due to restrictions in their home state. And so I had to wait an extra two weeks to end my pregnancy. And so I was 26 weeks by the time that I could say goodbye to my son. Was forced to seek care out of state, and I was fortunate enough to have the resources to do so. I had an 18 month old at the time. I have a loving husband who's a wonderful partner, and we had the resources to drop everything to drive 500 miles to Bethesda, Maryland and seek care at the care clinic there. The burden there is large. It requires a lot of logistics, huge financial investment of traveling and paying out of pocket for care. And I was just lord, that I wasn't able to access healthcare in my home state, which I think is arguably one of the most progressive in the US. To be blunt about the experience of seeking my abortion, it was absolute hell. The providers wouldn't refer me, so I had to arrange my own medical care. I had to call the clinic. That was the worst phone call of my life. They were extremely compassionate, bless them. But it was hell. And then I had to wait two weeks. And that time, it is just so surreal because you're still pregnant. The world still sees you and treats you as pregnant. And so you have random people, congratulating you. Oh, when are you due. But your baby's going to die. And, you know, you've made that decision, that impossible decision because it doesn't feel like a choice when you get a diagnosis like that. It's really just determining how and when do I let my baby go? Because this isn't salvageable. And it's really just hell to keep grappling with that in such a prolonged period of time. I felt incredibly naive that I didn't understand the nuances of our state law here in Massachusetts. So the simple structure is that we have a 24 week ban on the books, often referred to as a viability ban or a gestational ban. And there are certain narrow exceptions for receiving care after that 24 week limit. And so, you know, I learned about this very fragile network of last stop clinics. Depending upon how far along you are in your pregnancy, I was about 33 weeks at the time. There are a handful of clinics that will provide later abortion care, Colorado, DC, Maryland, or the primary. So I was able to I was lucky that I was able to secure an appointment and receive that compassionate care and to give my son peace and to give my family peace. And many other patients are not so lucky. I get really angry thinking back on it because it's like all of the medical providers that have been so involved in helping me coordinate care for this pregnancy vanished. And we're seeing it come out in other states. Doctors are terrified to touch pregnant patients with potential complications. And so I think I saw the early buddings of that. Especially now after the fall of Roe, we're seeing patients pushed further and further into pregnancy. So this very fragile network of independent last stop clinics with courageous later abortion providers are really struggling to stay afloat and they are inundated with patients. It's incredibly difficult. To secure an appointment, even if you have the resources to travel. So the stakes are so high, it's not just an inconvenience of being denied care and having to travel. It's the likelihood that you're going to have to forego care, and you're going to have to against your will carry a pregnancy to term and birth a severely compromised pregnancy in my case, and likely watch your child suffer and die. And we're seeing that happen across the country. Phrase late term abortion and post birth abortion are incredibly misleading and damaging, and I would call them outright lies. First of all, a late term abortion, that's so subjective. What does late mean? In Texas, late is anything past six weeks. And so I think it's really important when we talk about abortion care to use medically accurate language. So I talk about my abortion in terms of the gestational age I was at. I was at 26 weeks. I also talk about, um, second trimester and third trimester abortion care, which is what people conceptualize as late term abortions. But again, late is subjective. And so I think we need to be very intentional about the language we choose. Similarly, post birth abortion. I have a special ire for that language because that language is targeting families who gave birth to an infant that will die, that is dying. And they are talking about parents who opted for comfort care instead of prolonging the inevitable and prolonging that infant's suffering. I get very emotional about that because I know that would have been my family if I hadn't gotten my abortion. There are a lot of myths about later abortion. There's the myth of partial birth abortion and after birth. Abortion. Right. There's the myth of the monster flippantly casually pursuing a third trimester abortion. But there is the myth that patients in blue states have unfettered access to abortion care throughout pregnancy. And then I think there is the most vexing myth of them all, is that Roe is enough. And that, I think, is the most vexing myth that we're grappling with right now within the pro choice movement. And, you know, seeing states codify access to abortion is exciting. And we have momentum, and it shows that abortion still wins on the ballot. And as a later abortion patient, when I look at the actual language and see the limitations, it is heartbreaking because I know that patients like me are continuing to get left behind. Tilt initiatives that have passed in other states, I see them as a really good foundation, but the problem is that they have viability language in there. And viability language, that's legal ease. That's not a medical term because what does viability mean? Does it mean an infant's born and survives for an hour, survives for a day, survives for a year, survives indefinitely on extreme medical intervention? What does it mean to be viable? At what point it's just far too complicated and nuance to legislate. And the se legislators, I envy them a lot because they live in this fantasy world where it's very black and white, but that's not the clinical reality of pregnancy. Pregnancy is complicated, it's nuanced and every pregnancy is different. Wish that people understood that third trimester abortion seekers are not monsters. Many of us are mothers trying to make the best decision we can for our child, for our baby, for our family, for our future fertility, for our own well being. And these circumstances are incredibly complicated, medically complex, and the decisions about pursuing an abortion later in pregnancy cannot be left up to public opinion, and they can't be left up to politicians or the government. These choices need to be made between the patient and their healthcare providers. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What It Really Means to Get an Abortion After ‘Fetal Viability’","description":"Even in states where abortion is legal, many restrict the procedure after 'fetal viability.' Here's what that means and why some abortions happen later in pregnancy. 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