Texas YouTuber forced to carry dead fetus for TWO WEEKS after miscarriage due to state's anti-abortion laws
A Texas woman has spoken out about how the state's anti-abortion laws forced her to carry her dead foetus in her womb for two weeks after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Marlena Stell, a YouTuber and the founder of the cosmetics company Makeup Geek, initially explained in a video last year that they received the news that her baby was healthy during an ultrasound at 7 weeks. She and her husband were overjoyed to learn that their daughter would have a sibling and were thrilled by the news.
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However, a second ultrasound performed two weeks later revealed that she had miscarried. There is no heartbeat, the doctor said. In a recent interview with CNN, Stell stated that there was no viable pregnancy.
The news devastated Stell and her husband, especially after she requested that her doctor perform a dilation and curettage, or D&C, which removes pregnancy tissue from the uterus. Stell claimed that the Texas anti-abortion law caused her doctor to decline. The doctor then informed Stell: "Due to the new law that was passed here, you must schedule another ultrasound to confirm that this pregnancy is not legitimate before we can give you any kind of medical intervention."
After that, she underwent a second ultrasound, calling it "gut-wrenching" and "invasive" in a YouTube video. "You are already aware of what you will see," said Stell, recalling the experience. "Just seeing it twice and being told you're not going to be a mom. Just emotionally carrying it around and just knowing that there’s nothing you could do. It just feels very... it’s like I can’t grieve or move past it because I’m just walking around carrying it," she added.
This is the last screen I saw right before they pulled up the ultrasound showing my loss. I deleted the final ultrasound images because it was too painful to see yet I was forced to have 3 ultrasounds and see that same screen over and over just to get my D&C. This is 2022 in USA. pic.twitter.com/gfr5SpoxuK
— Marlena Stell (@MarlenaStell) July 19, 2022
Stell's doctor declined to do the required procedure despite receiving the second ultrasound. In the opinion of medical professionals, such situations are extremely dangerous and even fatal. Carrying a dead foetus for weeks can have terrible, long-lasting effects on women, according to one expert, Dr. Lilian Schapiro,an Atlanta-based OB-GYN. Shapiro warned that if she contracted an infection, it might render her sterile and prevent her from ever bearing children again. When a baby is dying inside, it begins to release tissue fragments that could enter the mother's bloodstream and cause organ failure and may result in the death of the mother — a death that is entirely preventable.
In Texas, surgeons who perform these operations run the risk of being sued. Before Stell could find a doctor willing to do her D&C, she carried the dead foetus in her womb for two weeks. In a YouTube video recapping her experience, Stell said, "I get so angry that I was treated this way because of laws that were passed by men who have never been pregnant and never will be." Stell said she was left "devastated," and she did not want to go through another ultrasound once she knew that her baby was no longer alive. Her own health was another concern.
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Stell and her family said the entire experience has been so traumatizing that they are thinking about leaving Texas and moving away from their friends and family in order to try getting pregnant again.