‘Close to zero’: Texas woman and OB-GYN fought Texas to permit induced delivery on nonviable fetus

Rebekah Sager

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday July 26, 2022 · 1:36 PM PDT

2022/07/26 · 13:36

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - JULY 16: Abortion-rights activists demonstrate outside a Planned Parenthood clinic as they safeguard the clinic from a possible protest by a far-right group on July 16, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. On July 9, a protest by far-rights groups outside the clinic forced it to shut down early. The Supreme Court's recent decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health overturned the landmark 50-year-old Roe v Wade case and erased a federal right to an abortion. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) — Abortion-rights activists demonstrate outside a Planned Parenthood clinic as they safeguard the clinic from a possible protest by a far-right group on July 16, 2022 in Santa Monica, California.

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Elizabeth Weller and her partner James live in Houston, Texas. Weller was just 26 years old when she found out in early 2022 that she was pregnant. All was well with the pregnancy until her 18th week, when she says they fell into a “dystopian nightmare” of "physical, emotional, and mental anguish."

According to an exclusive account from NPR, on May 10, 2022, Weller’s water broke. James rushed her to the hospital, where it was confirmed via ultrasound that she’d suffered from a premature rupture of membranes. She was told by a doctor that "There's very little amniotic fluid left. That's not a good thing. All you can do now is just hope and pray that things go well."

But it wasn’t until her OB-GYN explained what was really going on that Weller realized that, even though her fetus still had a heartbeat, she was at risk of infection, and there was a strong likelihood that the fetus would die.

As NPR reports, Weller was given two options: one, “termination for medical reasons,” or two, remain in the hospital to manage her care and prevent a possible infection until she reached 24 weeks of pregnancy and the fetus reached “viability” outside of her womb. But as Dr. Alan Peaceman, a professor of maternal-fetal medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, told NPR, the chance of a fetus surviving at 18 weeks is virtually nil.

"This is probably about as close to zero as you'll ever get in medicine,” Peaceman said.

Essentially, Weller had two grim options. She and James decided to terminate the pregnancy. That’s when the reality of Texas’ anti-abortion politics became more than policy—they became personal.

Even though Weller’s pregnancy came and went before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the state of Texas effectively banned all banned abortions in September 2021, when legislation banning the procedure after “fetal heart activity” is detected—at about six weeks’ gestation.

Weller’s doctor told her that she would not be legally allowed to terminate her pregnancy. Weller just wasn’t sick enough; her life was not in danger enough; and her fetus still had a heartbeat, in spite of those “close to zero” odds of survival. Weller was told which symptoms would qualify as a “medical emergency,” and she was sent on her way.

It was only after Weller began discharging a fluid with an odor strong "enough to make her retch" that she would have permission from the doctor and hospital for her pregnancy to be terminated.

Weller and her husband began making plans to leave the state for the procedure, NPR reports. But just two days after leaving the hospital, Weller became sick enough to possibly have a life-saving abortion or be induced to deliver.

If it hadn’t been for an ethics panel and a doctor in East Texas who spoke up, NPR writes, the Wellers would likely have had to travel out of the state to save her life and, given the rapid onset of her infection, likely wouldn’t have made it in time to save Weller’s life.

Weller gave birth on May 14, four days after her water had broken. Their daughter was stillborn, as predicted.

"Later they laid down this beautiful baby girl in my arms. She was so tiny. And she rested on my chest ... I looked at her little hands and I just cried. And I told her 'I'm so sorry. I couldn't give you life. I'm so sorry,” Weller told NPR. She adds that “Abortions are sometimes needed out of an act of an emergency, out of an act of saving a woman's life. Or hell—it honestly, it shouldn't even get to the point where you're having to save a woman's life."

‘Close to zero’: Texas woman and OB-GYN fought Texas to permit induced delivery on nonviable fetus

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