![]() ![]() Many doctors in Texas who treat pregnant patients are extremely scared, especially of language in one of the state's abortion bans that allows people to take civil action against anyone who "aids or abets" abortion. Nevertheless, that seems to be what's happening. "Physicians should not be scared to say the 'a-word.'" "Physicians have independent speech rights, to speak to their patients openly," she says. The first amendment of the constitution protects free speech, explains Elizabeth Sepper, professor of law at University of Texas at Austin. But the fear among doctors and patients in the new legal landscape in Texas is extreme, to the point where - as Miller found - some doctors won't say the word "abortion" in the exam room. What Miller did does not violate current abortion laws in Texas, legal experts say. Shots - Health News To safeguard healthy twin in utero, she had to 'escape' Texas for abortion procedure 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. When she returned to Dallas and continued her prenatal care, she found herself navigating silence around abortion. 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. 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." She learned from a genetic counselor that continuing to carry both fetuses could put the healthy one at risk. ![]() One of the twins had trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that causes about 90% of fetuses to die before birth. This past fall, when Lauren Miller of Dallas was 13-weeks pregnant with twins, she got horrible news. ![]() Lauren Miller, of Dallas, Texas, says that her state's abortion laws added to the stress and turmoil her family faced after one of her twins was diagnosed with a fatal condition in utero. ![]()
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