What this poor woman in South Carolina went through is sickening… and unfortunately a heartbreaking reality for so many right now.
In March, Elisabeth Weber took to TikTok to share that she suffered a miscarriage — but was denied a dilation and curettage procedure. See, her body was “not passing the baby the way it’s supposed to,” so ordinarily that would mean a D&C to get the remains out of the body. But not anymore! Now it’s considered an abortion — and therefore illegal!
Related: Alexa PenaVega Shares Photo Of Stillborn Daughter One Year After Her Pregnancy Loss
Even though doctors confirmed “the baby is dead, no heartbeat,” they wouldn’t provide her necessary, life-saving care due to South Carolina’s law banning all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, so around 6 weeks. Elisabeth was 9 weeks into her pregnancy when she found out about her miscarriage, so the doctor’s hands were tied. She was then forced to put her life at risk and continue to carry the fetus for weeks. In tears, she said in the video:
“My baby has been sitting inside me dead for three weeks already, and now I have to wait another week knowing my baby is dead to do anything about it.”
Awful. Watch the emotional video (below):
@elisabeth__hope EDIT: I recorded this minutes after finding this information out, so not everything was worded correctly. I was raised in a cult and was forced to stand in front of abortion clinics as a CHILD. I am not conservative and I did NOT vote for trump.
Her story went viral on the platform, and now the 31-year-old is breaking down everything that happened to her in an interview with People on Tuesday. Brace yourselves. The details are gut-wrenching.
The baby was her fifth child — and was “very wanted,” Elisabeth said. She was already a mom to three daughters, Neveah, 8, Story, 5, and Finley, 18 months, and had a son, Stone, who sadly died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome back in 2018. She and her husband, Thomas, had a feeling “it was a boy” again and planned to name him “Lorenzo Thomas Weber, Enzo for short.”
The couple started planning to get a bigger place for their new arrival, but they received devastating news on March 27. When Elisabeth was 9 weeks pregnant, she said she found out “the baby stopped growing at 6 weeks and one day,” and there was no heartbeat detected. She had suffered a miscarriage — something her doctor was “definitely” sure about. She was sent home to miscarry naturally. However, she continued to experience pregnancy symptoms, including the debilitating sickness hyperemesis gravidarum — which means almost non-stop throwing up as the “morning sickness” goes all day. Elisabeth knew she needed to go back to the emergency room on March 31 to get help:
“My body was not recognizing that I wasn’t pregnant anymore. I was still completely bedridden with nausea, throwing up all the time. The baby had not grown at all. There’s still no heartbeat. At that point, I was almost 10 weeks.”
Elisabeth asked for a D&C, explaining:
“With my HG and all of that, I’m so sick. I have three kids, and waiting around to go into a mini-labor is just hard.”
However, the doctors refused and told her she had to wait two weeks to see if she would miscarry on her own instead. WTF. She recalled being told:
“‘Because of the law — the heartbeat bill — we legally have to wait.’ My baby didn’t have a heartbeat, and it still prevented me from getting care.”
What’s even more infuriating? Elisabeth claimed the physician questioned if it was a “wanted” pregnancy — seemingly suggesting the mom did not have a miscarriage and was just trying to get rid of the fetus:
“And I was like, ‘Yes, it’s very much wanted.’ She seemed to be implying that I was trying to sneakily get rid of it. Obviously, that was not the case. I looked at her and literally was like, ’My baby is dead. Every doctor I’ve talked to knows my baby is dead. My baby is not going to magically get a heartbeat.’”
Still, Elisabeth said she was told to return to the hospital if she “started heavily bleeding, like hemorrhaging” or septic. Until she reached the two-week mark, there was nothing more they could do for her. She told People:
“I can’t believe that I’m being forced to carry around my dead baby. They know it’s gone, they know it’s dead, they know it’s stopped developing, and now I’m being forced to carry it … there’s really no feeling like when your womb becomes a tomb.”
After that, Elisabeth posted the now-viral video to TikTok to express her outrage over the decision. She said a patient advocate saw it and reached out, recommending she go to a different hospital. It was there her worst fears were confirmed. According to Elisabeth, her “white blood cell count was super high,” and she had all the signs that she was “in an active infection.” Yet she was told she still couldn’t have a D&C! What! The doctors sent her home again, with only pain medication:
“I was still in a ton of pain, but they just sent me home with Oxycodone. I felt like I couldn’t even grieve … I haven’t even had a moment to just sit and mourn this. I lost my son from SIDS at 10 weeks old, so it obviously brought up a lot from that loss as well.”
She also “wasn’t able to work” and her husband took time off, so they are dealing with the “financial burden on top of all of it.” And to make matters worse, the stress of the situation caused her Crohn’s disease to flare up. We can’t imagine how hard all of this must have been for her. It breaks our hearts.
Once the two weeks were up, Elisabeth said she was finally able to get a D&C — but on her paperwork, “it says abortion.” Wow. No one should ever have to go through what she did. It’s cruel and so dangerous. Now, Elisabeth is hoping her story will spark change:
“I hope that some good comes out of this really terrible situation. Hopefully just open up people’s eyes to see this is so dangerous for women. This is hurting women.”
She’s also taking the time to “start grieving the loss” of her “little Enzo.” Elizabeth and Thomas have a GoFundMe to help cover expenses. Our hearts go out to them during this time.
[Image via Elisabeth Weber/TikTok]
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