Editor’s note: This is the fifth installment in State Newsroom’s occasional series titled When and Where: Abortion Access in America, profiling people who needed abortion care in the U.S. before and after Dobbs. You can find the first part Herethe second part is Herethe third one is Hereand the fourth one is Here.
Anne Angus had been ready to expand her family for years.
She got pregnant the first time and was lucky to avoid the morning sickness and extreme fatigue that often comes with the first trimester. She quit her job, hoping to become a full-time mother.
“It was so exciting, I was so ready,” said Angus, who lives in Montana.
By the time she reached the halfway point, she had purchased a few items on Facebook Marketplace, including a bassinet, some toys, a lounger and a teddy bear, which she holds as she tells the story of her doomed pregnancy.
During a routine anatomical examination performed at the 19th week of pregnancy, Angus’ doctor discovered that there was something wrong with her belly. However, according to her doctor, it could mean any number of things with varying degrees of severity, and doctors won’t know more until further tests are completed. These tests would have to be performed by a team of specialists almost 700 miles away, at the Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado. An appointment was scheduled four weeks after the anatomy exam.
At the end of a series of tests, she met with a team of doctors at the children’s hospital to discuss the diagnosis and next steps. It was called Eagle-Barrett syndrome, a occasional genetic disorder that can cause partial or complete absence of abdominal muscles, urinary tract malformations and testicular abnormalities.
“The little glands that run from the kidney to the bladder are three times larger than in an adult,” Angus said. “You shouldn’t even see them on an ultrasound, let alone be very visible.”
There is a 50-50 chance that her future pregnancies will have the same mutation, which led her to decide that in vitro fertilization was a safer way to get pregnant and allow the embryos to be tested before implantation in the uterus. But like abortion, access to in vitro fertilization is becoming another political argument at the state and federal level, leaving Angus worried that her remaining ability to have a child is also in jeopardy.
After Dobbs’ decision, the clinic was overwhelmed with patients
Before arriving in Denver, Angus told her husband that even if the diagnosis was sedate, she did not want to terminate the pregnancy. He understood and supported every decision she wanted to make, she added.
However, once the fetus’ condition was determined, Denver doctors began discussing dialysis, kidney transplants and various other treatments that would be needed after birth.
“It all sounded to me like they were just doing experiments on my baby, and the experiment was, ‘How long can we keep him alive?'” Angus said. “It wasn’t a feeling of love or compassion for me.”
When talking to her husband about it, Angus said they were talking about a family member who had an incurable disease.
“Watching this person’s pain grow as he slowly fell apart over the years was devastating for the family,” she said. “We didn’t want this for our son.”
That’s when they decided to release him without medical intervention and came up with the idea that he might slowly slip away to the neonatal intensive care unit, she added.
It was then mid-October 2022, four months after the Dobbs decision, which allowed states to re-regulate access to abortion and the resulting legal and legislative chaos. One of the few places in the country where Angus could have an abortion early in her pregnancy was a clinic in Boulder, Colorado. In Montana, the maximum age at which a pregnancy can be terminated is 21 weeks, so she knew she couldn’t go home.
“This clinic (in Boulder) was taken over because all the states that previously had access to it now didn’t have it or they were pushed through much later,” Angus said. “We had to wait two weeks from the moment the decision was made.”
When she arrived for her check-up, she was 26 weeks along. There were protesters outside the clinic, so an escort with an umbrella covered Angus and her husband as they went inside.
“I remember feeling so angry and furious towards them. You have no idea what’s going on,” she said. “You don’t care at all about my baby suffering if it’s born.”
The solution came a few days later. Angus said it was challenging to face the reality that she had given up what little hope she had left.
“It was probably the biggest fear I’ve ever experienced. No one talks about what it’s like to have an abortion at the end of the second trimester. What should I feel? What will happen? Who should I talk to about this?” she said.
After the procedure, the doctor told her that it was a challenging process due to the gigantic amount of water retained in the fetus’s body. Angus said she saw it just by looking at him.
“I didn’t see his whole body just because of his medical fragility, but you could tell it would have been a really ugly death for him on the ground,” she said.
Insurance did not cover the costs. Travel, lodging and procedure costs Angus and her husband spent $10,000 of their savings.
Angus’ frustration continues as in vitro fertilization becomes a up-to-date political target
In 2023, Angus had multiple egg retrieval appointments, but found the process to be emotionally and financially draining.
“We are extremely happy that my husband is benefiting from his work, but we are at the end of (those benefits), so this is our last IVF cycle,” she said.
She plans to have an embryo transferred in September, but if it doesn’t work out, she worries that future policy decisions about in vitro fertilization will limit her options. Is only one clinic that offers IVF treatment in Montana.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos are “baby” and several IVF clinics in the state have closed their doors due to liability concerns. Within months, some states took steps to ensure access to treatment, but congressional bills aimed at federally protecting in vitro fertilization failed to advance and politically influential religious sect she moved against him on ethical grounds, potentially starting further ideological battles.
The up-to-date political battle over in vitro fertilization, linked to her experience with abortion, has Angus concerned that there are no clear protections for treatment in her state. This made her tell her story with passion, including: Montana Legislature in early 2023, when lawmakers failed to introduce a bill that would have eased some of the state’s remaining restrictions on abortion access.
While access to services is still widely available in Montana, Republicans have been trying to change that since the Dobbs decision. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed several anti-abortion bills into law in 2023, including a 20-week ban, but so far blocked in the courts. Gianforte continues to employ executive power to try to limit Medicaid funding and limit abortion eligibility.
Republicans in the Legislature did so as well explain they do not support the November ballot initiative to amend the state constitution to provide abortion rights, and at least one candidate does endorsed by a national anti-abortion group is running for a seat in Congress.
“I am furious that politicians are interfering in an extremely private part of my life. I’m trying to grow my family in the way I can, in a loving and balanced way, and they think they know better than me, and it offends me greatly,” she said.
