Photo: Sylvester Malimu / EyeEm/Getty Images “The [Mississippi] legislature then found that at five or six weeks’ gestational age an ‘unborn human being’s heart begins beating;’ at eight weeks the ‘unborn human being begins to move in the womb;’ at nine weeks ‘all basic physiological functions are present;’ at ten weeks ‘vital organs begin to function,’ and ‘[h]air, fingernails, and toenails begin to form;’ at eleven weeks ‘an unborn human being’s diaphragm is developing,’ and he or she ‘may...
You might have to stop taking certain medications you need or be told erroneously by a doctor that you have to. Your pregnancy might be complicated by a preexisting condition, or you may develop a new one, such as gestational diabetes, simply because you are pregnant. And, of course, you may die, something already likelier in the United States than other rich countries before the rate rose dramatically in 2020.
At 20 weeks, you begin to be at risk of preeclampsia, a risk that will follow you even after you give birth, characterized by abnormally high blood pressure and organ injury. It can attack the kidney, liver, brain, eyes, and placenta, often bringing with it headaches, changes in vision, and filling the lungs with fluid. It can cause stroke, seizures, or internal bleeding of the liver. It can kill you.
In a dozen years of reporting on it, I have read so many grisly, skewed descriptions of abortion, including in judicial opinions, alongside claims that it universally traumatizes women. For almost as long, really until just before I experienced it, I had only the vaguest idea of what birth might be like except the unsettling memory of being told you could poop on the hospital bed.
Or you may have a cesarean birth, which comprise just under a third of births in the U.S. A doctor makes an incision in your skin, the wall of your abdomen, and your uterus. Like any surgery, this carries risks: blood loss or clots, bowel or bladder injury, allergic reactions. It may be a while before you can get out of bed; you are told not to carry anything heavier than your baby. An incision can take weeks to heal, can feel numb for months or years to come, and may become infected.