Because of Ohio’s abortion restrictions, one woman was forced to travel 300 miles to Chicago to abort her dying fetus.
Sheva Guy, 23, a doctoral student from Cincinnati, Ohio said the fetus she was carrying was diagnosed with a fatal spine abnormality. The diagnosis came after a second-trimester ultrasound at about 22 weeks to determine gender. Guy said she had two options: deliver a stillborn daughter or have an abortion. She described the first option was more than she could bear. Her traumatic situation was made worse because no Ohio abortion clinic would perform the abortion at 22 weeks.
Because of Ohio’s abortion restrictions, Guy was forced to travel 300 miles to Chicago to have the procedure.
Guy explained the technician was quiet after the ultrasound. Something was wrong. The fetus was too small.
A second test confirmed the devastating news. The head of the fetus was too large and the body was too small. There was no chance the fetus would survive.
“I just completely broke down. I mean, I was so vulnerable,” Guy said. “Pantsless [sic] on the table, I was finding out this news. I was just sobbing. Both my contacts fell out. I couldn’t see anything.”
Guy shared her story during a Tuesday news conference hosted by Progress Ohio, a liberal-leaning public policy group, and NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio. Both groups oppose tightening restrictions on abortions.
Dayton’s Women’s Med Center performs abortions until 22½ weeks but they didn’t have an opening within that time frame, so they referred Guy to Chicago, where she had the abortion days later.
Her husband and his parents accompanied Guy, and the entire trip cost approximately $3,000 including the price of the abortion. It wasn’t until they were headed back home to Ohio that it hit her: “I had to leave my baby in Chicago,” she said.
Guy should have been able to have an abortion under Ohio law, which currently allows abortions up to 24 weeks, said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life.
Some doctors aren’t comfortable performing the procedure too close to the 24-week ban for fear of retaliation, according to Jaime Miracle, deputy director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.
Republican lawmakers are pushing to ban abortions after 20 weeks from fertilization – which is about 22 weeks into the pregnancy. Abortions after 20 weeks are rare. Only 133 abortions on fetuses past 21 weeks were performed in Ohio last year, according to Ohio Department of Health records.
The number of abortion clinics in Ohio has dropped from 14 to 9 since 2013 because of the GOP dominated legislature led by Republican governor and 2016 presidential hopeful, John Kasich.
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