The fetus Michelle was carrying was dead. At her 14-week checkup, the doctor had detected only low cardiac activity. Now, two weeks later, the physician confirmed it: The fetus likely had been dead for most or all of the intervening time. The 35-year-old Missouri woman, who asked that her real name not be used, vividly remembers what her doctor said next.
“If there’s one thing I want you to go away understanding, it’s that you are in mortal danger,” she told Michelle.
Because she had been carrying a dead fetus for so long, Michelle was at risk of developing sepsis or an infection. “Either could be fatal. I needed to make a choice quickly,” she recalled. Her two options were to receive what’s called a D&E—a dilation and evacuation, the procedure also used for second-trimester abortions—or to be induced and go through labor.
“I said immediately, ‘Well that’s easy, of course I want the D&E. Why would I want to go through labor for a dead fetus?’” Michelle said. “That’s awful.”
But Michelle’s OB-GYN worked at a hospital that didn’t provide D&Es. “It’s perceived as an abortion by the community,” a nurse explained.
The closest doctor who could perform the procedure was an hour and a half away in Kansas, and he didn’t feel comfortable treating her right before he left for a vacation. When she called around and other doctors said they couldn’t do the D&E either, she asked why. They
