“Deborah Dorbert is devoting the final days before her baby’s birth to planning the details of the infant’s death.” So begins this devastating feature about the impact of Florida’s abortion ban, implemented after Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer, on one woman and her family.
For much of the time, her pregnancy is disconcertingly normal, though she has stopped going in for regular checkups to escape the company of expectant mothers. Deborah can feel the baby pushing against her ribs and hips and deep into her pelvis, causing pain that she believes comes from the lack of fluid cushioning the baby. On occasion she pushes back, mother and child adjusting to the give-and-take of life together.
In December, Deborah says,she texted the coordinator at the maternal fetal medicine office regularly, hoping to schedule an induction by Christmas. The response stunned her: After consulting health-system administrators about the law, the specialist concluded Deborah would have to wait until close to full term, around 37 weeks gestation, she recalled the coordinator telling her.
The doctor made his determination after having “legal/administration look at the new law and the way it’s written,” the coordinator reiterated to Deborah in a recent text message she shared with The Post. “It’s horribly written,” the text continued.
For Deborah, that meant resigning herself to a two-month wait, during which her anxiety and depression built.
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