Menaca’s Story

Dear Amy,

Twenty years ago, at age 31, I had a 3 and a half year old son and was pregnant with my second child. At a routine 20 week ultrasound my husband and I found out that the baby had several heart defects. We went to see several specialists to see if his heart could be fixed after he was born. They told us that he would continue to live and grow in utero, but would die after birth. His heart had too many problems to fix. They could not tell us how long he would live, but that he would be in pain since he did not have a fully functioning heart. We decided to spare him the suffering and interrupted the pregnancy at 22 weeks.

I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy who weighed 1 pound. My husband and I held him until he passed away and even for a while afterward. It was a heartbreaking choice to let him go, but it was my choice and my husband’s choice with input from medical professionals. No government has the right to have a say in such personal and life altering decisions. Terminations were allowed until 24 weeks in Texas at that time. A woman today in Texas does not have the option I had.

Menaca

*reprinted from Planned Parenthood