Two friends were denied care after Florida banned abortion. One almost died.

[In It to Win It]

WaPo

No paywall

MIRAMAR, Fla. — Anya Cook did not want to push. But sitting on the toilet, legs splayed wide, she knew she didn’t have a choice.

She was about to deliver her baby alone in the bathroom of a hair salon. On this Thursday afternoon in mid-December, about five months before her due date, she knew the baby would not be born alive.

Cook tried to tune out the easy chatter outside, happy women with working wombs catching up with their hairdresser. At 36, she’d already experienced a long line of miscarriages, but none of the pregnancies had been more than five weeks along. Now she had to deliver a nearly 16-week fetus — a daughter she’d planned to call Bunny.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

As soon as the fetus hit the water, blood started flowing between her thighs. Blood splattered on the white toilet seat and across the floor. She panicked, her hands shaking as she picked up her phone to call her husband, Derick.

“Baby,” she said, “I need you to come to the bathroom.”

Over the course of the day, according to medical records, Cook would lose roughly half the blood in her body.

Link to tweet

[flying_wahini]

1. They Don't Care.

If it’s not them they don’t care.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

2. The fetus takes priority to them. agreed THEY DON"T CARE

a story about a woman almost dying doesn't shake their resolve.

[Hortensis]

3. Well, pretty sure aside from that "they," THEY do care. Half the women

in this nation are conservative; those past fearing for themselves have younger relatives they care about. Half of America's husbands and wannabe future fathers are conservative. They care.

Many already oppose extreme anti-abortion laws, which we are seeing in election results in various places, not just in polls.

Speaking of polls, though, a 2023 Marist poll found that 69% of Americans now want a solution that allows abortion with some limits. 90% say they believe laws that protect both the health and well-being of a woman and the life of the unborn baby are possible, as opposed to one or the other. This is a new high, up from 81% last year.

We have the numbers -- big time! We need the will to unite. What's more important to EACH of us? Spitting at the other side or saving lives by restoring a national right to abortion?