This is the sad consequence of the change in jurisprudence on abortion in the United States and the end of the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision. Mayron Hollis is now unable to have another child. The Tennessee woman was denied an emergency abortion for a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy. This American woman had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy to save her life, revealed the television channel ABC on Wednesday.
Last summer, Mayron and her husband learned she was pregnant shortly after giving birth to their first child in February 2022. This pregnancy immediately worried the doctors, because she had undergone a caesarean section and became pregnant again in a short time, which increased the risk of pregnancy "on caesarean section scar", a very rare type of ectopic pregnancy in which the embryo implants in the scar of a previous caesarean section.
" READ ALSO IVG in the United States: a 10-year-old girl forced to change state to abort
According to doctors, this pathology can lead to serious blood loss after childbirth as well as sterility, because pregnancies with "placenta accreta" (editor's note, the placenta is firmly attached to the uterine muscle) can only be interrupted in a very short time.
This first diagnosis was obviously shocking for the couple, who wanted to have another child. In reality, he had very little time for reflection in the face of this difficult decision. When the couple decided that the risk to Mayron's life was too great, the ban on all abortions went into effect in this conservative southern state. The couple says their doctor did not warn them of the change in state law, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to end Roe vs. Wade jurisprudence last summer.
Preterm delivery by caesarean section
The 32-year-old would have needed a complex procedure requiring the intervention of several doctors of different specialties to terminate her "placenta accreta" without removing her uterus. But because of the state's abortion law, which at the time provided no exceptions, not enough doctors were willing to provide the care Mayron needed, largely for fear of being sued after the fact.
Last December, around the 25th week of pregnancy, Maryon Hollis suffered severe bleeding. After various passages through the hospital box, the decision of an emergency operation is taken by the local doctors. It is the solution of a premature delivery by caesarean section and an emergency hysterectomy in a single procedure, according to medical records obtained by ABC, which was retained. Hysterectomy consists of the surgical removal of the uterus and therefore a de facto sterilization. "I didn't want this ablation. But they told me it was the only way to stop the bleeding to help me, so I had no choice," she told the channel.
" READ ALSO Right to abortion: legal battle, pill, aid at the border... in the United States, the response is organized
The situation endangered both the child and the mother. Since giving birth on 13 December, Alayna, her baby girl, has been hospitalized for two full months; She was so premature that she spent her first month of life in an incubator. After returning home, Alayna went back and forth to the hospital. Since February, she has only stayed home for two weeks, her mother told ABC.
Mayron's terrible experience led Tennessee lawmakers to add an exception to state laws that allows abortions to be performed for ectopic pregnancies similar to Maryon Hollis'. But doctors, including one of those who helped treat the one whose case set a precedent, fear that it will not change much in practice as the issue is so sensitive on that side of the Atlantic.
