Women denied abortions tell court they were ‘made to feel like medical refugees’ as they sue Idaho
An Idaho woman who was denied an abortion in her home state felt like a “medical refugee” when she had to cross state lines to obtain abortion care, she has told a court hearing a case against the state.
Four Idaho women denied abortion care after experiencing pregnancy complications and physicians are suing the state of Idaho, which has two abortion bans in place and only allows abortions in the case of rape or incest or to save the pregnant person’s life with limited medical exceptions. The plaintiffs, represented by lawyers at the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), are seeking clarity on medical exceptions and when providers are legally allowed to provide life-saving care.
Jennifer Adkins, the lead plaintiff in the case, drove to Portland, Oregon in April 2023 after she was denied abortion care in Idaho after receiving “devastating news” when she was 12 weeks pregnant that her fetus had a fatal condition that could also threaten her health, Gail Deady, a CRR lawyer, said in the Idaho Fourth District Court on Tuesday.
“She knew she could miscarriage and hemorrhage on the road” but she had “no choice but to make that drive,” Deady said during opening arguments.
Adkins testified about her firsthand experience.
Already a mother to a young child, she got an ultrasound to check on her second pregnancy.
During her ultrasound, “the baby looked different than my previous pregnancy,” Adkins testified. She said she saw fluid on the scan and noticed the technician was taking a lot of measurements — which she didn’t interpret as a good sign.
After a conversation with a genetic counselor and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, she learned that her baby had fluid behind her neck — which turned out to be cystic hygroma — and was not going to survive the pregnancy, she testified.
Not only did she then understand she would likely suffer a miscarriage or have to leave the state for abortion care, Adkins testified that her own health seemed to be at risk: “The longer I remained pregnant with this condition, the higher my risk of developing mirror syndrome,” a life-threatening condition. She also faced a risk of hemorrhage or sepsis, should she miscarry without the assistance of a medical professional.
After this conversation, the specialists gave her a list of out-of-state providers, a bereavement pamphlet and a miscarriage kit.
She got another ultrasound which showed her fetus still had a heartbeat. “I felt devastated because no parent wants to wish that when they look at an ultrasound, they don’t want to see their baby’s heartbeat, and yet here I was. I wanted something to make the decision for us and end her suffering,” Adkins said.
She consulted with her husband and they found the “most compassionate option” was to get an abortion out of state.
Her procedure cost $850. But before she and her husband embarked on their six-hour drive to Portland, she and her husband needed to rent a car, book a hotel, and book childcare for her son, which totaled about $1,500. “We needed to come up with the money to do that,” she testified. They sought assistance from abortion funds and friends.
“We were made to feel like medical refugees from our own state,” she said. At one point during the lengthy drive, they lost cell service, meaning there was no way to get in touch with someone if she had started to hemorrhage.
