minoanmiss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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agonyaunt2024-11-18 10:10 am
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2024-11-18 10:10 am
Entry tags:
Care & Feeding: I'm Worried This Year's Thanksgiving Trip Could Be Deadly
Content advisory: pregnancy, political peril.
I am 38, 7-weeks pregnant with twins, and have one 2-year-old. I had a complicated pregnancy and delivery with my son. I live in a blue state where abortion is legal at all stages of a pregnancy. My parents live in a bordering state where abortion is banned at 6 weeks. It’s a 3-hour drive to my parents from our city and about a 1.5-hour drive from their house to the border with our state. I’m supposed to visit them for Thanksgiving (my brother and his family are also flying in from another state) when I will be approximately 12 weeks pregnant. I also have my company holiday party in December in a state across the country where abortion is banned at 15 weeks. I will be exactly 15 weeks pregnant at the time of that trip.
In both cases, I’m terrified of traveling to states where abortion is prohibited during a high-risk geriatric pregnancy with twins. From my parents’ house, my husband could drive us to the border quickly (within 1.5 hours) if there’s an emergency. From the state I’m flying to, it’s a 2.5-hour drive to the nearest state with no abortion bans. I’m not sure if we’re getting a rental car yet. Should I even go on these trips? Am I being overdramatic? I’m just concerned if I have a medical emergency, I won’t be able to get the lifesaving care I need.
—Pregnant and Scared
Dear Pregnant and Scared,
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You aren’t being overdramatic at all. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the rise of restrictive laws on the state level, women are dying due to a lack of access to reproductive health care. As far as your holiday party goes, I would definitely skip it. Anything can happen, and the abortion ban in that state can prevent you from getting the treatment you may need, even if it’s not a matter of terminating the pregnancy. With regards to your trip to see your parents this Thanksgiving, they may live 1.5 hours from the border, but how close is the nearest hospital once you cross? And what kind of reputation does that hospital have? I think you should factor that into your decision. Your parents might be four or five hours away from the sort of institution you’d need to go to for care. Carrying multiples is already higher risk than being pregnant with one child, and you’ve already had a complicated pregnancy before. I think the best thing for you to do for your piece of mind, and the health of you and your babies, would be to stay put until after you give birth. Perhaps your parents can come visit you this year instead.
I am 38, 7-weeks pregnant with twins, and have one 2-year-old. I had a complicated pregnancy and delivery with my son. I live in a blue state where abortion is legal at all stages of a pregnancy. My parents live in a bordering state where abortion is banned at 6 weeks. It’s a 3-hour drive to my parents from our city and about a 1.5-hour drive from their house to the border with our state. I’m supposed to visit them for Thanksgiving (my brother and his family are also flying in from another state) when I will be approximately 12 weeks pregnant. I also have my company holiday party in December in a state across the country where abortion is banned at 15 weeks. I will be exactly 15 weeks pregnant at the time of that trip.
In both cases, I’m terrified of traveling to states where abortion is prohibited during a high-risk geriatric pregnancy with twins. From my parents’ house, my husband could drive us to the border quickly (within 1.5 hours) if there’s an emergency. From the state I’m flying to, it’s a 2.5-hour drive to the nearest state with no abortion bans. I’m not sure if we’re getting a rental car yet. Should I even go on these trips? Am I being overdramatic? I’m just concerned if I have a medical emergency, I won’t be able to get the lifesaving care I need.
—Pregnant and Scared
Dear Pregnant and Scared,
Advertisement
You aren’t being overdramatic at all. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the rise of restrictive laws on the state level, women are dying due to a lack of access to reproductive health care. As far as your holiday party goes, I would definitely skip it. Anything can happen, and the abortion ban in that state can prevent you from getting the treatment you may need, even if it’s not a matter of terminating the pregnancy. With regards to your trip to see your parents this Thanksgiving, they may live 1.5 hours from the border, but how close is the nearest hospital once you cross? And what kind of reputation does that hospital have? I think you should factor that into your decision. Your parents might be four or five hours away from the sort of institution you’d need to go to for care. Carrying multiples is already higher risk than being pregnant with one child, and you’ve already had a complicated pregnancy before. I think the best thing for you to do for your piece of mind, and the health of you and your babies, would be to stay put until after you give birth. Perhaps your parents can come visit you this year instead.
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But I hate, HATE that this has to be a consideration for LW :(
(As someone whose pregnancy complications DID require bedrest, I'm incredibly sympathetic to not being up for travel, even without the understandable abortion/pregnancy care fears!)