Her Story - Tiller's Patients "Sally" Speaks Out

My name is [Sally] and I'm a healthy 20 year old from [Colorado]. In early August, I found out I was 6 weeks pregnant. The realization was a surprise to my fiancee and I seeing as I was taking birth control and we were not planning on expanding our family for another few years. After taking the first few weeks to get accustomed to the idea of being parents, we started getting really excited. We went shopping and picked out names for girls and boys. In all, we not only got 'used to' the idea of being parents but we were ecstatic. All the prenatal testing was coming back normal and healthy and we couldn't have been happier.

A few weeks later I went in for my 18 week ultrasound. The technician told me that the baby (which looked like a girl to her) was rather small for her gestational age and therefore she could not see the detail she needed. I was then told to return in 3 weeks for another ultrasound.

At this point in time, I was 21 weeks along and still thinking that the ultrasound was routine and there was nothing to worry about. I was wrong. During this ultrasound, at 21 weeks, the technician saw what she believed was a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). In case you weren't aware, CDH is a condition where the muscle which separates the thorax (chest cavity) and the abdominal cavity does not form completely. The lack of formation leaves hole that in most cases allows the abdominal organs to herniate (move) into the thorax. This severely inhibits lung growth and leaves the child unable to breathe on his/her own.

The day after my ultrasound, we went into [Denver] and had more detailed ultrasounds performed to confirm the diagnosis and figure out the severity.
While there, they suggested we come back in two days and have an amniocentesis performed. The reason for the amnio was that CDH, in about 50% of cases is the result of another anomaly (usually a genetic defect.) The amnio was performed when I was 22 weeks along and the results take 12-14 days to come back.

During this time, my fiancee and I decided that because CDH is reparable with surgery within the first few days of life, that as long our child would have a fighting chance at life after surgery, we wanted to continue the pregnancy. This was our baby now, not just a fetus.

We received a call from the hospital in [Denver]. The woman on the phone was vague and told us no more than absolutely necessary. She said that the amnio showed 'something' on one of the chromosomes, and that we were going to see a genetic counselor the following day. I spent the entire night researching genetic defects. An alarming number of chromosome problems resulted in similar defects both physical and otherwise. What this means is that most babies born with a piece of a chromosome missing or extra have some kind of mental retardation. This, however, was a possibility that we had already discussed as a family and we had decided that we would raise our child no matter what.

What we heard was so much worse that what we had been expecting. At this point, I am 25 weeks pregnant and no longer able to legally terminate my pregnancy in [Colorado], not that this was and option we were considering. My fiancee, my parents and I met with a genetic counselor. She was going to explain to us the results of the amnio and what they meant for the child. She explained what chromosomes were and common genetic anomalies such as Down syndrome, Edward's syndrome, and Patau syndrome which are caused by defects in chromosomes 21, 18 and 13 respectively. Our child had none of these. What she (the amnio confirmed it was a girl) did have was a partial deletion of the 4th chromosome, also known as 4p-. This means that a small piece of the short arm of chromosome 4 is missing. This causes what medical professionals call Wolf-Hirshhorn syndrome. This occurs in approximately 1 in 50,000 births.

This syndrome causes some of the most severe mental retardation seen in a genetic disorder, and far more. On to of the CDH that had already been diagnosed, there was a secondary diagnosis of a congenital heart defect resulting in a hole in between the ventricles. Finally, anywhere from 50-90% of diagnosed cases are associated with severe and frequent seizures, not to mention that less than 25% of cases make it to adulthood.

Details on Wolf-Hirshorn can be found here.

We were devastated. That night we had to make a decision. Our options were carrying to term and raising our child, carrying to term and then giving our little girl to a special needs adoption agency, and for the first time we considered termination. The thought of our baby girl (Lily Marie as we named her) suffering through a life of surgery after surgery, seizures, and retardation to the point that she would never be able to read and speaking was very unlikely, made me sick. Literally, I spent the next few days vomiting everything I looked at. I cried over my ultrasound pictures and actually cursed God for doing this to me, to us...to her.

Finally, after 3 days of sleepless turmoil, we decided, we were going to terminate my pregnancy. The genetic counselor contacted Women's Health Services and we flew into Kansas the next day.

I wrote this, not because I feel that you are wrong and that you should stand up for what you believe is right, but because I would like everyone out there who is an anti-Tiller activist to know that he saved my baby girl from living a life of pain that no child should ever go through. I'm not saying I know all about him and everything he has ever done. I'm not saying that he's perfect and has never done anything wrong, but he made my decision one that I can look back on and know was right, for us at least. My little girl is in a much better place than we. She is happy, healthy, and whole, somewhere we would be lucky to be.

Click here to read the experience "Jessica" had during her abortion.

Click here to read more from women who have had abortions at Tiller's clinic.

Click here to go to the home page.

This account was edited only lightly for spelling and grammar. The information in brackets [like this] is information that was changed to protect the identity of this woman.

Did you have an abortion at Tiller's clinic? Or did you accompany someone who did? If so, please click here. I'd like to correspond with you.