SAN ANTONIO — The fallout of the Supreme Court's recent overturning of Roe v. Wade may change the way people think about reproductive health care for years to come. But other restrictions have already been in place in Texas for some time, causing one woman’s planned 2016 pregnancy to turn into a near-death experience.
"I found out I'm pregnant the day after Mother's Day of 2016. We were really excited because it was something we had been wanting something we had been trying for," said photographer Angela Michelle.
It took nearly two years for her to become pregnant, but the celebration was short-lived. During a hospital visit for pneumonia, she had what she describes as the worst headache she’s ever had.
"They basically told me, word for word, ‘Oh, honey, its anxiety. You just have anxiety, we need to send you home so you can rest,'” Michelle recalled. “So, they discharged me."
"Then I have the full-on stroke in the car on the way home."
Limited options
It turned out she had a blood-clotting condition called antiphospholipid syndrome. Her pregnancy hormones triggered an episode and a stroke that ultimately ended up blinding her in one eye.
"Because I was pregnant, there's a lot of medications that they can't give you," she said. "And there's even some tests that they're reluctant to run on you because it can cause harm to the fetus."
She had a bad reaction to the medication they gave her, but other available treatment could have harmed the fetus. In that scenario, the hospital's state funding would be at risk.
"Even though we wanted this pregnancy, we wanted this baby, I realized I was only seven weeks. And I realized that my life was in jeopardy," she said. "So I asked if we could abort the fetus, (to) save my life. And then my line of thinking is, 'I'll try again.' I didn't know that this was the start of the change of my life."
Rather than working to save Michelle's life, the doctors were forced to grapple with the legal questions.
"My husband heard them discussing, like, 'Well, can we save her? Well, you know, are we going to get in trouble because it's going to harm the baby?'" she said.
Without medication, clots formed throughout her body, including in her lungs. The experience left her permanently disabled.
"Seeing the doctors and nurses, I could look in their eyes and I could see their heartbreak for me," she said. "I could see that they were struggling, I could see that they were in a position that was really hard for them."
Doctors didn’t have to make the choice; the embryo’s heart stopped on its own. Angela spent the next five days in an intensive care unit while doctors and nurses worked to save her life.
“I truly believe that part of the reason I have some permanent disabilities is because there was that debate, and there was that time of they weren't sure how to navigate the situation,” Angela said. “My diseases have me where I have to go to the doctor pretty regularly. I go to about 150 appointments a year.”
The immediate danger had passed. However, because the hospital received state funds, it was not allowed to remove the then-dead fetus; that would also have been considered an abortion.
“Ultimately, I had to carry a dead fetus inside of me for, I think, about three or four more weeks until my body would naturally miscarry,” she said. “I didn't realize at the time how much I was jeopardizing my own life by doing that.”
Her photography business suffered as well. She stopped shooting weddings because she worried she would not reliably be able to show up for clients. She went from being published overseas to considering another line of work.
“I was, what I felt like, at the top of my career of where I wanted to be,” she said.
Michelle says the experience changed her forever, and made the overturning of Roe v. Wade feel more personal.
"It makes me feel like my life doesn't matter,” Angela said. “Like, if it's between me or a fetus, they'll have us both die."