Last year in April, Rachel Brown’s oncologist discovered that at 36, she had an aggressive form of breast cancer. This was just a day before when she found she was pregnant after trying to have a baby with her fiancé for nearly a year.
Rachel always said that she would never have an abortion but is now stuck in a predicament; she must choose between letting cancer spread and kill her or having chemotherapy that could prevent cancer but could harm the baby.
For Rachel and another woman who received a cancer diagnosis right when they were pregnant, the Supreme Court’s decision in June which ended the constitutional right to have an abortion was like being slapped in the face. If the life of a fetus is paramount, pregnancy can mean a woman may not be able to get effective treatment for her cancer.
Drugs to combat cancer are dangerous for fetuses in the first trimester. However, older chemotherapy drugs are safe for the second and third trimesters. The efficiency of newer and more effective drugs is unknown to doctors, who are reluctant to give them to pregnant women.
She consulted with Dr. Lisa Carey, a specialist in breast cancer at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Lisa Carey told Rachel that it would not be optimal, although she could have a mastectomy. Oncologists usually give cancer drugs before a mastectomy to shrink the tumor, allowing for less invasive surgery; if the treatment did not eradicate cancer, oncologists would try more aggressive drug treatment. If she had a mastectomy before chemotherapy, it would be impossible to know whether the therapy was helping. She worried that, even without her knowing it, her cancer could become fatal.
With great sadness, Rachel and her fiancé made their decision that they would have a medication abortion. When she was six weeks pregnant, she took the pills and cried all day. She was convinced the baby would be a girl and named her Hope. She has kept the ultrasound of Hope’s heartbeat.
Link:
After-Roe-Pregnant-Women-With-Cancer-Diagnoses-May-Face-Wrenching-Choices-The-New-York-Times
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Rachel always said that she would never have an abortion but is now stuck in a predicament; she must choose between letting cancer spread and kill her or having chemotherapy that could prevent cancer but could harm the baby.
For Rachel and another woman who received a cancer diagnosis right when they were pregnant, the Supreme Court’s decision in June which ended the constitutional right to have an abortion was like being slapped in the face. If the life of a fetus is paramount, pregnancy can mean a woman may not be able to get effective treatment for her cancer.
Drugs to combat cancer are dangerous for fetuses in the first trimester. However, older chemotherapy drugs are safe for the second and third trimesters. The efficiency of newer and more effective drugs is unknown to doctors, who are reluctant to give them to pregnant women.
She consulted with Dr. Lisa Carey, a specialist in breast cancer at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Lisa Carey told Rachel that it would not be optimal, although she could have a mastectomy. Oncologists usually give cancer drugs before a mastectomy to shrink the tumor, allowing for less invasive surgery; if the treatment did not eradicate cancer, oncologists would try more aggressive drug treatment. If she had a mastectomy before chemotherapy, it would be impossible to know whether the therapy was helping. She worried that, even without her knowing it, her cancer could become fatal.
With great sadness, Rachel and her fiancé made their decision that they would have a medication abortion. When she was six weeks pregnant, she took the pills and cried all day. She was convinced the baby would be a girl and named her Hope. She has kept the ultrasound of Hope’s heartbeat.
Link:
After-Roe-Pregnant-Women-With-Cancer-Diagnoses-May-Face-Wrenching-Choices-The-New-York-Times
Download
