3 abortion bans in Texas leave doctors 'talking in code' to pregnant patients
This past fall, when Lauren Miller of Dallas was 13-weeks pregnant with twins, she got horrible news. One of the twins had trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that causes about 90% of fetuses to die before birth. The other twin was healthy.
She learned from a genetic counselor that continuing to carry both fetuses could put the healthy one at risk. She saw a doctor who specializes in high risk pregnancies who told her: "You can't do anything in Texas and I can't tell you anything further in Texas, but you need to get out of state."
That's exactly what she did. Miller traveled to Colorado and, at 15-weeks pregnant, she had a "selective reduction" procedure to help ensure her pregnancy with her healthy twin could continue.
When she returned to Dallas and continued her prenatal care, she found herself navigating silence around abortion. She wondered, if the ultrasound technician knew she'd traveled out of state for an abortion, could she get reported? "You don't know where anybody stands, so it feels like we're all kind of talking in code," Miller says.
What Miller did does not violate current abortion laws in Texas, legal experts say.
