Doctors told Ms. Zurawski they could perform an abortion only if she became acutely ill or went into labor naturally, or if the fetus’s heartbeat stopped. That night at home, her water broke, but when she went to the emergency room, doctors said she was not in labor. Without amniotic fluid, the fetus would die, but it still had a heartbeat. And because Ms. Zurawski’s vital signs were stable, they said, she did not qualify for an exception. The hospital sent her home.
Ms. Zurawski and her husband, Josh Zurawski, considered driving 11 hours to New Mexico, but had been told to stay within a 20-minute drive of the hospital in Texas in case she went into labor. She was so worried about being prosecuted, “I didn’t even feel safe Googling options,” Ms. Zurawski said. “I didn’t know what they could and couldn’t search.”
Three days later, her doctors again told the Zurawskis they could not legally abort the fetus because it still had a heartbeat. At home that night, Ms. Zurawski developed a fever, and her husband called the obstetrician to ask to go to the hospital. “We were in this mind-set of, ‘Surely now you’ll accept us,’” Mr. Zurawski said. A nurse told them, he said, that doctors would have to receive approval from the hospital’s ethics board.
He finally rushed his wife to the emergency room later that night. There her fever spiked to 103.2 degrees. Doctors confirmed that she had a blood infection and said her life was now in danger, so they could induce delivery without violating Texas’ abortion ban.
Later that night, she developed a secondary infection. Doctors told Mr. Zurawski that they had to give his wife a blood transfusion to stabilize her enough to move her to the intensive care unit. The couple’s families flew in, fearing that she would die.
Ms. Zurawski left intensive care after three days, and the hospital after a week. Two months later, she had an operation to remove scar tissue from her uterus and fallopian tubes, but the doctors were unable to clear one.
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