Deborah Dorbert has gone from anticipating the birth of a second child to becoming an example of the uncertainty surrounding the 15-week abortion ban Florida adopted last year.
Dorbert learned on the day before Thanksgiving that her pregnancy had developed a serious complication. A doctor soon diagnosed her with Potter syndrome, a condition in which the fetus does not receive sufficient amniotic fluid and does not develop normal kidneys and lungs.
Doctors told Dorbert, then 23 weeks pregnant, that her baby would not survive for more than a few hours after birth. With about four months remaining in her pregnancy, Dorbert and her husband, Lee, decided they wanted to terminate the pregnancy as soon as possible.
That’s when the couple’s wishes ran up against a law passed last year by the Florida Legislature that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. The law, officially titled Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality, allows exceptions for cases in which two doctors certify in writing that the fetus has a fatal abnormality and has not reached viability, generally considered to be at 23 to 24 weeks of gestation.
By the time Dorbert learned that Lakeland Regional Health would not approve prematurely inducing labor to terminate her pregnancy, citing the months-old Florida law, her pregnancy was past the viability threshold.
“It’s kind of hard to feel life and then know that once you deliver it, they’re going to pass,” she said.
R&I – Obey
Shaky