Tennessee law prohibits women from having abortions in nearly all circumstances. But once the babies are here, the state provides little help. We followed one family as they struggled to make it.

In the midst of the turmoil in July 2022, they learned Mayron was pregnant again. But this time, doctors warned she and her fetus might not survive.

The embryo had been implanted in scar tissue from her recent cesarean section. There was a high chance that the embryo could rupture, blowing open her uterus and killing her, or that she could bleed to death during delivery. The baby could come months early and face serious medical risks, or even die.

Tennessee already had some of the worst outcomes in the nation when measuring maternal health, infant mortality and child poverty. Lawmakers who paved the way for a new generation of post-Roe births did little to bolster the state’s meager safety net to support these babies and their families.

  • @captainlezbian
    32•9 months ago

    Government incentivized sterilization isn’t a path we should ever tread down. It’s really fucked up.

      • bane_killgrind
        28•9 months ago

        Seems more simple to have easily accessible emergency contraceptives, and maybe some better welfare so vulnerable women are less reliant on shitty men.

        • @colforge
          14•9 months ago

          Nahhh it’s so much easier to blame the individual than to think for a moment about our culpability as members of the society that breaks people down and puts them in these situations! /s

      • @NatakuNox
        13•9 months ago

        Ya cuz only those “deserving” sterilization will be the ones who are “sterilized” totally wrong fee used by the state to genicide the “others”

      • @littlewonder
        1•9 months ago

        And who gets to decide? And when the administration changes, who decides then?

        Maybe your distant family member should’ve been raised with better sex education. Punishing all poor people isn’t the answer.