Marlena's Story
Texas woman suffers needlessly after her miscarriage due to state's anti-abortion laws
The first thing that Marlena Stell will tell you is that she wanted her baby.
She and her husband had tried for years to have a child. Then, in August of last year Stell became pregnant…only to miscarry.
“My body doesn’t naturally expel so I needed a D&C,” she said recently, referring to the procedure otherwise known as dilation and curettage which is to remove tissue from inside a uterus.
Health care providers perform dilation and curettage to diagnose and treat certain uterine conditions — such as heavy bleeding — or to clear the uterine lining after a miscarriage or abortion.
“I was denied one because my doctor was worried about the laws here in Texas. I waited for 2 WEEKS carrying my loss while Hoping I didn’t go septic,” Stell recently recounted in a series of highly personal and emotional tweets which shine a much-needed spotlight on just what effects the political right's efforts to criminalize abortion are having on the women being impacted by these draconian measures. “My pain got worse and I was scared. I begged to get a D&C and was still told no. Because politicians who have no right to butt into my healthcare needs decided their say so was more important than MINE.
“Instead of allowing me to grieve my loss, I had to fight for 2 weeks to get care which I eventually got at an abortion clinic and not a hospital. The clinic gave me the care I was denied by doctors. And while Entering the clinic, I was yelled at and told I was a ‘baby killer' from total strangers who didn’t even know why I was there or what I was going through. Because these strangers thought their opinions mattered more than my own health and well being,” Stell, of Houston Texas, tweeted.
Stories like those of Marlena Stell have become of primary concern across the country, as red states have begun rushing to criminalize abortion services in the wake of last month's stunning US Supreme Court decision to overturn nearly a half century of national guaranteed abortion rights — and what this new legal landscape will mean for American women everywhere.
Stell tweeted a photo of her family today, with this comment: “Oh and here’s my 2 year old baby girl who has her mom still alive because I FOUGHT to get the care I needed. I will NOT let a government decide whether I can get care I need to stay healthy and ALIVE.”
Furthermore, as she was still grieving her loss, Texas law treated Marlena Stell like a criminal.
“To add salt to my wounds, I was required to multiple ultrasounds to ‘prove’ that I indeed miscarried and wasn’t lying. When you’re early in your pregnancy your ultrasound is a transvaginal one, which on its own is already uncomfortable. But being required to have multiple because A politician tells you have to for ‘proof’, it’s incredibly violating. I had to hear the same news 3 times ‘sorry for your loss'. Why put women through that multiple times and make her feel like she’s in the wrong for what happened???”
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