Erika Christensen aborted her unborn baby at 32 weeks of pregnancy because she says her baby was probably going to die anyway.
Complaining that her insurance did not cover the full cost of her baby’s abortion death, Christensen now wants her home state of New York to legalize late-term abortions and make it easier for insurance companies and taxpayers to pay for them.
Vox reports Christensen could have chosen to give birth to her unborn child, who she says she wanted, and treasure those few moments they had together before the child died. But when doctors told her that her unborn baby was unlikely to live, she chose to travel to Colorado for a late-term abortion instead.
Christensen said she had to pay $10,000 out of pocket for the abortion at Warren Hern’s Colorado abortion clinic. LifeNews, which previously covered Christensen’s story when she told it anonymously, reported that Hern lied to her about the excruciating pain that her unborn baby would feel during the abortion. Christensen said she chose abortion because she did not want her child to suffer.
Garin Marschall, Christensen’s husband, told Vox that they have been actively involved in promoting late-term abortion legislation in New York state and taxpayer funding of abortions.
According to the report:
Since their experience, Christensen and Marschall have become advocates for the Reproductive Health Act, which would make abortion after 24 weeks legal in New York state if the fetus is not viable or if the mother’s health is threatened. That would allow women in Christensen’s situation to stay in New York and get abortions from in-network doctors, making it more likely for insurance to cover the procedure. New York allows state Medicaid coverage for abortion, and most private insurers also cover the procedure, said Liz Krueger, a state senator and sponsor of the bill.
… But one of the biggest barriers to insurance coverage for abortion around the country is the Hyde Amendment. Though it restricts only federal funding for abortion, it affects the private insurance markets as well, since many private insurers take their cues from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Marschall, who has become something of an insurance expert since Christensen’s abortion.
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… Until New York changes its law, “I will feel like I’m not allowed to grieve,” she said. “I’m going to stay acutely angry and rageful until it’s made right.”
The average cost of an abortion up to 10 weeks is $500 and about $1,500 up to 20 weeks, according to the report. However, late-term abortions tend to be extremely expensive, ranging in the tens of thousands. Many states prohibit Medicaid from covering abortions, and a number of others prohibit insurance plans in the Obamacare exchanges from covering abortions.
Kate Carson, another woman who had a late-term abortion at 36 weeks after her unborn daughter was diagnosed with a fatal brain condition, also advocated for better insurance coverage of abortion.
She told Vox that she had to pay $25,000 for her abortion, and had to find the huge chunk of money on short notice. She said her insurance company only reimbursed her for a small amount of the abortion procedure.
“Every bill that came in the mail and every refusal from insurance was like a knife in my heart,” she said.
But these women had other options. Their lives were not being threatened, and their unborn babies deserved to live as long as nature allowed. Our society would consider it horribly inhumane to kill dying toddlers by stabbing them in the hearts with poison or dismembering them. It should be no different for babies in the womb who are dying. Unborn children deserve the same rights and treatment as born children.
And there are a growing number of programs to help families through tragic fetal diagnoses. Perinatal hospice programs provide support and comfort to families as they plan for their baby’s natural death. They offer everything from counseling and help with funeral plans to ideas for making memories in the short time they have with their child.
