States that outlaw abortions after a certain number of weeks could make it difficult or impossible to terminate a pregnancy because of a serious genetic disorder
Ann was 15 weeks pregnant with her fourth child when the results of her prenatal genetic test came back last August. The test suggested that her daughter, whom she and her husband planned to name Juliet, was missing one of her two X chromosomes — a condition called Turner syndrome that can cause dwarfism, heart defects, and infertility, among other complications.
The vast majority of abortions occur at or before 13 weeks, and people who seek abortions later than that frequently cite barriers to accessing care or discovery of a medical complication. But Texas’ law has effectively banned virtually all abortions in the state because many women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks. No prenatal tests can diagnose genetic conditions before 11 weeks.
Lauren Westerfield, a prenatal genetic counselor in Houston, said the Texas law has made it impossible for her to fully do her job. She expects that, for that reason, many counselors will choose not to practice in Texas or other states where abortion is now illegal — or soon will be — because of trigger laws launched by the Supreme Court decision.
Laura Hercher, a genetics expert and ethicist at Sarah Lawrence College, worries that restrictive abortion laws will mean genetic disorders will eventually occur almost exclusively among poor families, particularly as technological advances provide better prenatal diagnoses. Wealthier people could travel to other states for an abortion — or undergo in vitro procedures that screen out embryos with genetic anomalies.
Among abortion opponents, however, terminating a pregnancy after such a diagnosis is seen as an act of injustice against a weaker party. John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, called such situations “tragic” but added that “we have to have better answers than ‘the only solution is to cause the death of the child.’”
That was when Ann decided to end the pregnancy, fearing the pain Juliet would have experienced every day. “This decision is out of love,” she said. “It’s taking the pain away from them by experiencing it yourself.”
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