“My husband and I, we want a family, we want many children… We never thought we would find ourselves at a Planned Parenthood having an abortion, but there we were.”
Tippy is a teacher who grew up in a big family—she’s the youngest of five girls. Now Tippy and her husband want their own big family. They began that journey last summer, buying their first home and becoming pregnant.
While Tippy had both advocated for and used Planned Parenthood services as a young adult, she saw other healthcare providers once she got health insurance through her job. Tippy sought care from a OB-GYN as she prepared to have her first child.
At her 20-week appointment and anatomy scan, Tippy and her husband received devastating news. There were major complications with Tippy’s pregnancy: her baby had stopped developing in utero, its circulatory system wasn’t fully functional, and the list of problems went on.
Further compounding the situation was the discovery that her placenta was enlarged and put the rest of her reproductive system in jeopardy. If Tippy gave birth at the end of this pregnancy, she would likely lose her reproductive organs during the process, and with them the opportunity to have the many children she and her husband want.
Tippy’s doctors told her she had about a week to make a decision about whether or not to carry to term due to abortion laws in Minnesota.
“It wasn’t until this experience that late-term abortions were really defined for me, and why people have them, and why they are a necessity,” says Tippy. She was connected with Planned Parenthood and able to schedule an abortion consultation and abortion with a Planned Parenthood clinic, returning to Planned Parenthood when she never thought she’d be a patient again.
Tippy was amazed by the emotional support and help she received at Planned Parenthood throughout her abortion process.
“I stand with Planned Parenthood because they cried with me.”
Tippy chose to have a late term abortion in order to save her reproductive system and have the large family she’s always wanted, even though it was a painful decision to make. This summer Tippy is carrying her second pregnancy, a healthy one, to term.
“I did have an abortion, and that is why I’m pregnant now, and that’s why I get to have a family in the future.”
Tags: minnesota