Sharing stories: After a dire prognosis, Wisconsin mom forced to leave state for an abortion
‘I knew what I was going to have to do, and my heart was completely broken,’ said Dr. Anna Igler.
It’s been nearly five years since Dr. Anna Igler lost her baby at 24 weeks into her pregnancy, and her grief is still raw.
Igler, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Green Bay, Wisconsin, says the moment she looked at her first son’s face after his birth in 2018, she knew she wanted another baby.
A year after her son was born, Igler and her husband began trying to conceive their next child.
“I had my positive pregnancy test, actually, on Mother’s Day of 2020, and I took a picture of it, and I kept the picture on my phone,” Igler told the Wisconsin Independent.
At Igler’s 20-week ultrasound, her baby daughter was a bit smaller than usual but still measuring within normal ranges. However, because Igler was considered to be of advanced maternal age for a pregnancy at 36 years old, she had another ultrasound at 24 weeks to check the baby’s heart and growth development.
“I saw the head measurements, and I knew something was very, very wrong. I knew it right away,” Igler said. “Her head measurements were less than the first percentile. That’s not normal at all. Something really bad is going on.”
Igler had an amniocentesis, a test in which doctors insert a needle into the uterus and take a sample of the amniotic fluid. Two days later, the results from the test confirmed that the baby had been infected in utero with cytomegalovirus, causing microcephaly, a condition in which a baby’s head does not grow normally due to improper brain development.
Igler’s baby, whom she named Nora Rosa, had what she called a dismal prognosis.
“I knew what I was going to have to do, and my heart was completely broken,” Igler said, adding that she and her husband spoke to her physician and made the decision that day to have an abortion.
Because of the infection in her brain, Igler’s fetus could die before she was born; she could be born deaf or blind. The infection could infect the baby’s bone marrow, liver, or kidneys; she would likely have epilepsy; and she would likely need 24-hour around-the-clock care for her entire life.
“I just couldn’t have that for my child, and my husband couldn’t either. That’s not a life that we wanted our child to live,” Igler said. “We loved her, and we decided to let go of her, and we chose mercy.”
Wisconsin law prohibits abortion after 21 weeks and six days of pregnancy. Igler was 25 weeks pregnant, so in order to obtain an abortion, she had to leave the state. She flew to Colorado to see Dr. Warren Hern, a prominent abortion provider who specializes in care for patients later in pregnancy.
Hern’s clinic was surrounded by protesters. Igler said it felt cruel to have to walk past them to the office, adding, “It’s really hard, the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Igler says she began telling her story, as emotionally difficult as it is, not only because it honors the grief people feel after losing a baby but also because it’s a story of survival, resilience, and hope.
“I can stand up in front of the world and talk about it, and I don’t feel ashamed at all of having an abortion. And I can tell my story, and I can be fine,” Igler said. “I can hear criticism now, and I guess it bothers me a little bit, but whoever criticizes me for having an abortion, they’re pretty much a monster. That’s how I look at it. Like, OK, you clearly are unable to empathize. You are a monster.”
A year after her abortion, Igler began in vitro fertilization treatments. She became pregnant, and at 37 weeks into her pregnancy, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion. She gave birth to her daughter, Meara, a month later. She says that was when she began telling her story, and she hasn’t stopped.
