South Carolina Woman Was Forced to Carry Unviable Fetus for 49 Days

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

When Jill Perry took a pregnancy test at her hair salon between clients, she was just being thorough. Her period would probably come that afternoon, but she and her husband, Matt, had started to try for a child, so better to be safe than sorry. In a video of the moment, Perry holds the test up to the camera for the audience to see the digital readout. When she flips the test (and its results) back toward her, Perry goes wild. That night, April 19, 2022, Perry surprised her husband with a pair of “dad” shoes.

In May 2022, the pair went to an eight-week appointment, where they learned they’d be welcoming a girl. At 12 weeks in June, doctors performed genetic testing, and all was good. But by the end of June, the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, taking back the constitutional right to an abortion. And unfortunately for Perry, the effects of losing Roe were immediate and horrific.

Within days of the Dobbs decision, the South Carolina legislature banned abortion at six weeks gestation. Perry was waiting for yet another round of testing that couldn’t be done until her pregnancy had progressed; she was assuming the loss of abortion care wouldn’t affect this pregnancy. But at the couple’s 18-week appointment, an anatomy scan showed that the fetus’ heart wasn’t properly developed. Further diagnostic tests confirmed that it was hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a congenital birth defect in which the left heart chambers, depending on its severity, do not develop properly. It can be manageable, but is incurable—even if, in Perry’s case, the child were to undergo at least three heart surgeries before age 8.

A “born and raised Republican,” Perry always supported abortion rights in theory—she just never expected to need (or want) an abortion. “You can be a Republican Christian and still be pro-choice, because it’s compassion and empathy and giving the benefit of the doubt to the human that is going through this, that they have prayed and done the best thing that they knew to do for their child or for themselves,” Perry told Jezebel.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-carolina-woman-forced-carry-191000869.html

[Gore1FL]

1. Just like Jesus planned! nt

[mercuryblues]

2. IDGAF

If you consistently vote for candidates that promise to eliminate all legal abortion, you can't call yourself pro-choice.

[ShazzieB]

5. Some people just have no imagination.

Ever since Roe got the ax and these horror stories have been popping up, one thing I've noticed is how absolutely astounded a lot of people are to learn that there are actually situations where abortion is needed to protect the health of a woman and/or release her from having to carry and eventually give birth to a baby that is doomed to suffer and die in short order. They're even more shocked to find themselves in such a situation, and the shock reaches epic proportions when they realize the abortion ban laws of their state do not allow exceptions in these situations.

I think that is due in large part to a lack of imagination. Those who are strongly against abortion tend to see it as something that is done only for convenience. They assume there is no other possible reason why someone would have an abortion, and the only women who have them are slutty sluts who want to have all the sex with no consequences, and they take a very dim view of those women..

They are therefore happy when laws are passed to force all those slutty sluts to "take responsibility for their actions" by carrying their pregnancies to term, and they are SHOCKED, SHOCKED, I TELL YOU, when they find themselves caught in the trap that they thought was being set for those sluty sluts and NOT for non-sluts like themselves.

I don't say all this to make excuses for them, but to describe how their minds work.

[paleotn]

8. Exactly.

What? Did they think they were just kidding around with the ban abortion thing? Please.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. So was the wife of Michigan Senator Gary Peters

He spoke out before the last election, telling his story to explain his reasons for being pro-choice.

Senator Gary Peters Shares His Abortion Story
He’s the first sitting senator in history to do so.
https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a34339956/senator-gary-peters-abortion/

[Hekate]

4. It is very important that women who are Republican and religious speak out in favor of abortion...

… and that we give them space to do so. How else can they continue to learn, and become our allies in what matters?

For most people, truth does not come all at once in a complete package, but in increments. This woman was always pro-choice and was never a fanatic. She — like most of us, really — did not imagine something bad happening with the pregnancy she welcomed. And then it did — and she knew what she needed to do.

The last part of the article says:

That was less than two months ago. Now, Perry sees her harrowing story as a way to make a difference. Despite being a registered Republican, Perry has been working to get Democrat Joe Cunningham, the gubernatorial candidate, elected. Cunningham is challenging Gov. Henry McMasters—the current Republican governor who is itching to ban same-sex marriage again—who signed the six-week gestation ban that made it impossible for Perry to receive care in her home state.

Before she would make the multi-state trek to her abortion appointment, Perry wrote letters to “every statehouse representative” asking them to “understand the nuance and just give women the choice.” And she started the Ivy Grace Project to bring awareness to fetal anomaly diagnoses within abortion care. Talking about Ivy’s diagnosis “is giving her death meaning,” Perry said. “This is helping other women not feeling alienated and alone that they made the best decision for themselves and their children.”

Now, Perry is working to break the stigma behind the word abortion. “All those women in the 50s and 60s that fought for us, how could I not fight for the ones that are coming after us?”

[calimary]

7. Thank you, Hekate.

We all need to take note of this. And share.

[BOSSHOG]

9. I never thought of an abortion as a stigma

It’s a women’s health issue. And it ain’t none of my damn business. Nor is it the freaking Catholic Church’s business. That crime family should lose its tax exempt status over its heavily funded opposition to abortion. Disclaimer I was born and groomed to be a Catholic. Ain’t one no more. (My apologies to English Teachers)

I’m an old guy and I’m very thankful for the sanity women bring to the planet. And keep your freaking religion out of their health decisions.

[Hekate]

12. I graduated high school in 1965, and the whole topic of sexual behavior was taboo for girls....

Oh, if your mother or school was modern-thinking, you’d be taught how it all happened, at least as much as it took to track your periods and use sanitary napkins.

Societal punishment for getting pregnant was swift, severe, and lifelong.

Abortion was something you might read about, and involved girls and women maimed and dying. Prosecuted by the law. Doctors could lose their medical licenses and go to prison. “Abortionist” was a dirty word for a desperate action.

I remember a conversation among boys I thought of as friends. “Did you see Dixie over the summer? She was in a poignant condition.” “Snrk snrk snrk.” Furiously I demanded to know if she’d done this all by herself.

Girls usually were sent away and their first-born taken from them.

Birth control? For teenagers? It is to laugh. Boys could get condoms, sure, and in a small town that would surely be noticed.

By 1970, a lot had changed. But I remember.

[MustLoveBeagles]

11. +1

[paleotn]

6. Sorry, but you can't be a Republican and be a decent human. That isn't possible anymore.

[BOSSHOG]

10. Roger that My Friend!

Republicans provide that evidence on a daily basis.