Abortion rights activists protest after the overturning of Roe v Wade by the US supreme court, in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, in June 2022. Photograph: Seth Herald/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenAbortion rights activists protest after the overturning of Roe v Wade by the US supreme court, in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, in June 2022. Photograph: Seth Herald/AFP/Getty ImagesA Tennessee woman needed an abortion to save her life. She then joined a lawsuit against the state’s banAfter she had to travel out of state to access care, Rachel Fulton joined the Center for Reproductive Rights’ suit, which an appeal has now halted indefinitely
It was the worst day of Rachel Fulton’s life. She stood outside her doctor’s office, reeling with the news that her dearly wanted pregnancy needed to end. But her day would, somehow, become even worse: Fulton lives in Tennessee, where abortion is banned except for very narrow threats to the patient’s life. She had to travel hours to another state to receive care from an unfamiliar doctor far from home.
Fulton joined a lawsuit, along with five other patients, in 2023 against the state of Tennessee for violating their right to life. The American Medical Association and two doctors also joined the lawsuit because they say they have been prevented from providing the standard of care for their patients.
The trial was set to begin on Monday, but a last-minute appeal halted the proceedings indefinitely.
Read moreThe case illustrates the way state-level abortion bans and restrictions are endangering women’s health, even in places where exceptions for patients’ lives are supposed to be in place, said Linda Goldstein, lead attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which helped bring the lawsuit.
“An overwhelming majority of Americans want women to be able to get abortion care when their lives or health are threatened, and there are these exceptions written into the law that the politicians tout as doing that, but in fact, they don’t,” Goldstein said.
When the Fultons learned they were expecting their second child, they were overjoyed. But a 12-week scan revealed a condition called cystic hygroma, in which fluid gathered where the heart should have been forming. They held out hope and began decorating the nursery with a Peanuts theme. They chose a name: Titus Claude.
A follow-up exam at 16 weeks revealed that the condition was worsening, and the baby would not survive long after birth. Fulton’s life was also in danger, because she could develop mirror syndrome, a potentially deadly complication.
“Nothing prepares you to hear that the baby that you want is incompatible with life,” Fulton said. “And not only that he’s incompatible with life, but that he is putting my life at risk. There’s nothing in the world that can prepare you for that, even if you know it might be coming.”
Her mom reminded her that she had a little boy at home, a three-year-old son, who needed her. And Fulton thought about her paternal grandmother, who died in childbirth and left seven children behind. “I have seen what my aunts and uncles have gone through as a result of losing their mom when they were really young, and how it still affects them,” she said. “I didn’t want to do that to my son.”
The maternal-fetal physician said she could go out of state to get an abortion, she could wait until she was in mortal danger or she could wait until Titus died – only then could she access the care she needed in Tennessee.
“It made a terrible situation so much worse,” Fulton said. “I had no good options. I at least wanted the least-bad option to be with a doctor who has already seen me and is familiar with my medical history and I can go back to see for a follow-up appointment.”
She also wanted to be able to recover at home, near friends and family. She was left feeling a callous disregard for her life: “Some people that are making some decisions just didn’t care whether I lived or died in this situation.”
The Fultons first drove about eight hours to St Louis, Missouri, to stay with family; then Rachel and her husband drove another two or three hours to Illinois for the abortion. “I was just so, so grateful that I could give my son a huge, huge hug after all of that,” she said.
When she learned about a lawsuit from the Center for Reproductive Rights, she contacted them for updates on the case – and ended up joining as a plaintiff.
“If I could stop people from being in the medical position that I was in, I would, but I can’t,” Fulton said. “Whenever I do anything with this case, as hard as it is, I am doing it to help other people and I’m doing it for Titus,” she said. “For me, this is the Titus Fulton memorial court case.”
The patient plaintiffs “were all injured by being denied medical care”, Goldstein said. Four of them were diagnosed with lethal fetal diagnoses which were dangerous to their own health, and two of them developed very serious infections because reproductive healthcare was denied.
“What the state is trying to do by this delay is prevent these women from telling their story in court,” Goldstein said. “The state wants to convince the people of Tennessee that the abortion ban is working and that women who need medically necessary abortion care are getting it. And what women in our case prove, and what the state is very afraid of coming to light, is that it’s not working. Women are being denied care, they’re getting infected, they’re going septic, and this is all because doctors are terrified to provide standard medical treatment that they used to provide to their patients before the ban went into effect.”
The attorney general of Tennessee, Jonathan Skrmetti, told the Guardian in a statement that “there’s nothing unusual about appealing an appealable order”, adding that he believes “the Tennessee judiciary can resolve the legal issues here without a trial. If we’re wrong about that, we’re fully prepared to try this case.”
“It’s been a long time waiting for this, to have the rug pulled out from under us now,” Fulton said. “I’m just hoping I still get my day in court, I get to tell my story, I get to speak for other women, other families, in situations like ours.”
The longer the trial is delayed, the more families have to go through pain like theirs, she said.
