There was nothing wrong with her, no development issues wrong.

When Elizabeth Weller found out her baby was a girl during an ultrasound, she was overjoyed.

She and her husband were preparing a nursery.

She wasn't thinking about terminating the pregnancy or the strict laws prohibiting abortion

in her home state of Texas. But about a week after the scan, she went for a walk and realized

that something wasn't right. This burst of water just falls out of my body.

And I screamed because that's when I knew something wrong was happening.

Elizabeth told NPR she rushed to the hospital where she learned that her water had broken too early

and that the fetus would not survive. While there was still a fetal heartbeat,

it could stop at any moment. And she says, let's say if you get to the week of viability,

which is around 24 weeks, I can't promise you that she will continue to live past that point.

And because there's no amniotic fluid left, she's no longer going to be a developed baby.

Her doctor said that prolonging the pregnancy posed a serious risk of a life threatening infection.

She was living in Texas. It was May of 2022. About a month before Roe was overturned,

but Texas had a head start banning abortion. Since 2021, it had prohibited the procedure after

six weeks, as before many people even realized they're pregnant. As long as there was a fetal heartbeat,

pregnancy could not be ended except in the case of a medical emergency. And even when Elizabeth

started bleeding, her case was not deemed an emergency. To them, my life was not in danger enough.

Many doctors also felt trapped under the Texas law, which said almost anyone could sue a doctor,

not just for performing an illegal abortion, but for eating and abetting one.

Elizabeth and her husband had to wait, either for the fetal heartbeat to stop, or for her to get sicker.

And he and I kept telling each other, what is the whole point of the Hippocratic oath to do no harm?

...