Texas Woman Says Her Abortion ‘Gave Me the Chance to Become a Mom’

Taylor Edwards was 17 weeks pregnant in February 2023 when she found out that her fetus had a rare neural tube defect, causing its brain to grow outside an opening in the skull. “This baby will not survive,” her doctor said. He advised that the best option for her—and her future fertility—would be to have an emergency abortion. But she couldn’t get the procedure in her home state of Texas. 

In an interview with People, Edwards said the doctor referred her to a clinic in New Mexico. But when they canceled her appointment due to a medication shortage, she had to scramble to find a place that would accept her, since most clinics won’t perform an abortion after 18 weeks. She found a place in Colorado but, because of the delay, she needed a more extensive, two-day procedure. She booked her flights and accommodations through her own name and cards, in case her husband was listed as an accomplice for helping her obtain an illegal abortion under the Texas’ bounty hunter laws.

“Carrying around a baby who’s dying is like, really hard,” she told People. “Getting through that pregnancy was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.” 

The week before the procedure, she was vomitting and dizzy and her blood pressure spiked. In hindsight, she believes they were early preeclampsia symptoms. After the procedure she said she had “tremendous scarring in my uterus,” and ultimately had to get reconstructive uterine surgery before she and her husband could try IVF again. In March 2024, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy through IVF; she and her husband named him Reid Owen Edwards, which makes his initials are R.O.E., after the landmark Supreme Court case.