• Avery Davis Bell needed an abortion due to complications after a miscarriage
• Due to Georgia’s abortion ban, she could not receive medical help without her condition being deemed an emergency.
• The 34-year-old patient expressed disappointment with the procedure only after his life was put at risk and he began to experience permanent health problems.

A Georgia mother nearly lost her life and is left with permanent health problems after state laws delayed her from having an abortion.

Avery Davis Bell was overjoyed when she found out she was pregnant with her second baby in July. She and her husband are already parents to a 3-year-old boy. However, this pregnancy brought with it some complications. USA Today reports.

The 34-year-old woman from Atlanta learned that she had a subchorionic hematoma in the seventh week of her pregnancy. Accordingly Cleveland ClinicIt is a condition in which “blood forms between the baby’s amniotic sac and the uterine wall.”

Bell was placed on bed rest because he was bleeding profusely and was tested every two weeks to make sure he remained stable. However, on October 17, Bell was hospitalized as the bleeding worsened and anemia developed. Doctors also said that her water broke early and the risk of infection was very high.

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Bell was currently miscarrying in her second trimester, and her doctors decided she needed treatment. D&E or expansion and evacuationThis is an abortion performed in a clinic. During D&E, the cervix is ​​dilated and surgical instruments are used to remove the baby from the uterus by suctioning or scraping the lining of the uterus.

Bell’s doctors told him this was the best course of action “because they could control the bleeding and keep me alive.”

“We weren’t going to get to meet my baby at this point,” she said, holding back tears.

But Bell said that although she was in the process of miscarrying, her baby still had “cardiac activity.” She described it as a “slow end of pregnancy” that was “definitely over.”

Due to Georgia’s abortion ban, medical personnel were unable to perform the procedure because Bell’s heavy bleeding was not deemed urgent enough to waive Georgia’s mandatory 24-hour waiting period.

Georgia enacted a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. 2022 rollover Roe v. wade. According to the law, “(a) abortion shall not be performed if the human heartbeat of the unborn child is detectable, except in the case of a medical emergency or medically inconclusive pregnancy.”

A “medical emergency” is defined in the state as “a situation in which an abortion is necessary to prevent death of the pregnant woman or significant and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.”

Additionally, there is a mandatory 24-hour waiting period for patients to have an abortion, and a consultation is required at least 24 hours before the procedure.

“They were trying to get those papers signed so they could start the clock,” Bell recalled. “They can do that if my life is absolutely at risk. But that line is a little difficult, and my doctors, rightfully so, don’t want to wait for you to absolutely die before they can save you. And that’s a choice they have to have.”

“They should have said let’s start with whatever is safest. “And they couldn’t do that,” he added.

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As they waited, Bell’s condition continued to decline, and his hemoglobin levels dropped so low that he was approaching the point where a blood transfusion was necessary. Now that her life was in danger, she managed to bring forward the abortion.

Bell’s health was so poor at the time of the procedure that he still needed a blood transfusion. He has also received two iron infusions since then. The mother said doctors told her it could take six months for her body to heal and return to normal.

Although Bell was happy that medical staff were eventually able to save his life, he admitted that he was “angry that this was harder for me than it should have been.”

“Your baby is dead or dying inside you, you’re just waiting to collapse,” Bell told the outlet. “And of course I wanted to live for myself and my existing child, and the baby wasn’t going to live no matter what.”

“Women are dying in America, their children are losing their mothers because of some unscientific, non-rights-based legal discourses,” he said.