1/ At 17 weeks pregnant, Emily Waldorf was suddenly faced with a life-threatening situation: Her baby’s foot was dipping out of her cervix.
Doctors told her the longer her cervix stayed open, the higher her risk of infection.
They knew how to treat her. There was one issue…🧵
2/ The standard of care would be to empty her womb. But the baby still had a detectable heartbeat, and stopping it would run afoul of Arkansas’ abortion ban.
They needed to wait until she went into labor or showed signs of dangerous infection, or until the fetal heartbeat ended.
3/ Texas, another abortion ban state, has amended its law to make clear that doctors don’t need to wait for infection in similar cases.
Arkansas and other states have not.
4/ Waldorf came into this fight with more resources than most: Her father was a doctor. She worked at the hospital. She was highly educated and well-connected.
Yet even meeting the hospital’s CEO, calling the governor and hiring a lawyer would not be enough.
5/ For five straight days, she laid in a hospital bed, waiting for her situation to get dire enough that doctors — and the hospital's lawyers — would act.
propublica.org/article/arkans…
6/ On the third night, she came across ProPublica’s reporting about Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old medical assistant who died of infection in Georgia after doctors delayed emptying her uterus.
“Oh my god, it isn’t just me,” she thought. “But she died.”
propublica.org/article/georgi…
7/ On day four, Waldorf’s water broke. All morning, she watched the amniotic fluid drain out of her.
Now there was virtually no chance the fetus's lungs would develop to reach the edge of viability in seven weeks. There was only the risk of infection, growing every passing hour.
8/ On day five, she texted a friend from college that her temperature had risen to 99.3 degrees.
“Can they help you now?” her friend asked.
“I think it has to be like 100.4,” Waldorf wrote.
9/ Her family was outraged by all the obstacles in her way.
“If I took my dog to a vet and it had this problem, that dog would get better treatment,” her stepfather said.
Her sister Rowe wracked her brain for ways to help. Then it struck her.
10/ “Let’s call up Sarah,” Rowe said, referring to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Waldorf was just one degree of separation away. She and Gov. Sanders had gone to the same college, joined the same sorority, had mutual friends.
11/ But on the other end of the line, an aide asked, “What is it you expect the governor’s office to do?”
The sisters tried to explain the dire situation. They had language prepared about the abortion ban’s exception for emergencies. None of it worked.
12/ ProPublica asked the governor’s office if Sanders was aware of the calls, and if not, what her message would be.
A spokesperson only said: “Governor Sanders has prioritized not just the wellbeing of Arkansas’ unborn children but also at-risk kids and mothers.”
13/ To save her own life, Waldorf would need a way to make it across state lines.
Read her full story: propublica.org/article/arkans…
14/ Washington Regional, the hospital where Waldorf was receiving care in Arkansas, declined to comment on its policies. Both the hospital and Waldorf’s doctors declined to comment on her case.
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