Tennessee Woman Says State's Abortion Law 'Took My Fertility'

A Tennessee woman said that her state's stringent abortion law "took away" her chance to have children in the future after she was denied the procedure during a distressed pregnancy.

Speaking with The Independent, 34-year-old Breanna Cecil said that her fetus was diagnosed with acrania at her first ultrasound appointment in January 2023 after 12 weeks of pregnancy. Acrania is a rare, fatal condition in which the fetus does not have skull bones.

According to Cecil's account, despite doctors telling her that the fetus would not be viable outside of the womb, physicians were unsure how to handle her care due to Tennessee's near-total ban on abortion. Under state law following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, all abortions are restricted in Tennessee once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is often at about six weeks of pregnancy.

The law makes an exception if the life of the mother is at risk but does not allow the procedure in cases of rape or incest. It also makes performing or attempting an abortion a Class C felony.

Cecil, who has a son, told The Independent that after meeting with specialists in Tennessee, she sought an abortion outside of the state, and received one in February 2023 at a clinic in Chicago, Illinois. Within a week after the procedure, she returned to a doctor's office in Tennessee after coming down with a fever, where physicians found "retained tissue left over from the fetus," wrote Independent reporter Kelly Rissman. Cecil underwent another procedure to have the tissue removed.

Two days later, after her fever persisted, Cecil returned to the hospital where physicians found a 9-centimeter abscess in her abdomen, which, according to the report, encompassed some of her reproductive organs. A procedure to remove the abscess resulted in doctors removing Cecil's right ovary and fallopian tube.

"The state of Tennessee took my fertility from me," Cecil told The Independent, adding that the state's lawmakers "took away my opportunity to have a family like my own biological family because of these horrible laws that they put in place."

Cecil's story, which was published on Monday, comes as Tennessee is facing a lawsuit from seven women and two doctors who allege that the state's abortion law violates pregnant patients' right to life. The suit asks that the court to clarify what constitutes an exception to the abortion law and for it to be temporarily blocked while the case is decided.

A three-judge panel heard arguments on the suit at the start of April, during which lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the case argued that the state's ban is so broad that physicians are "denying or delaying abortion care" out of fear of retaliation from the state, according to a report from the Associated Press (AP).

"Doctors are denying or delaying abortion care in cases where even defendants concede it would be legally permissible," argued Linda Goldstein, attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the plaintiffs. "They are doing this because the terms of the medical necessity exception are vague and do not give them enough guidance."

Attorneys for the state argued that Tennessee's abortion law clearly lays out when an exception is allowed.

"Plaintiffs very much, and this is a shared policy view by many in the medical profession, do not want any sort of governmental scrutiny on their use, on their medical decision-making," said Whitney Hermandorfer, who argued on behalf of Tennessee's Attorney General's Office, as reported by AP. "And that's not been how things have worked in the abortion context."

Newsweek emailed the office for comment Monday evening.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Tennessee's abortion law is among the most restrictive in the country. The procedure is also banned in nearly all circumstances in 13 other states: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia.