Thursday, May 8, 2025 - Elisabeth Weber, a 31-year-old mother from Greenville, South Carolina, U.S. was denied immediate medical care after discovering her fetus no longer had a heartbeat, due to her state’s strict abortion laws.
For weeks, she was forced to carry the non-viable pregnancy,
describing the emotional trauma as feeling like her “womb becomes a tomb.”
Weber, who already has three daughters—Neveah, 8; Story, 5;
and Finley, 18 months—and previously lost a son to SIDS in 2018, had been
excitedly preparing for the arrival of her next child, whom she and her husband
Thomas had named Lorenzo Thomas Weber, or “Enzo.”
However, on March 27, 2025, during a routine check-up at
nine weeks pregnant, she was told the fetus had stopped growing three weeks
earlier, and no heartbeat could be detected. Despite this, she was instructed
to go home and wait for her body to miscarry naturally.
“I was still
completely bedridden with nausea, throwing up constantly,” Weber said, noting
that she suffers from hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), a condition causing severe
pregnancy sickness. “My body was not recognizing that I wasn’t pregnant
anymore.”
When she returned to the emergency room days later, desperate for a dilation and curettage (D&C)—a common procedure used to remove tissue from the uterus—she was told she would have to wait due to South Carolina’s abortion ban, commonly referred to as the “heartbeat bill.” The law prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, once a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected.
“My baby
didn’t have a heartbeat, and it still prevented me from getting care,” she
said. “I was told, ‘Because of the law, we legally have to wait.’” Even though
her pregnancy was non-viable, she was told nothing could be done unless she
began hemorrhaging or became septic.
During this traumatic waiting period, Weber posted a video
to TikTok from her car that quickly went viral. “My baby is dead. There’s no
heartbeat. And now I have to wait another week, knowing my baby is dead to do
anything about it,” she said tearfully in the video.
Eventually, a patient advocate helped her find another
hospital. Tests revealed she had developed an infection, but she was still
denied a D&C because she didn’t meet the legal criteria. She was instead
sent home with painkillers.
“I felt like
I couldn’t even grieve,” she told PEOPLE. “This loss brought up everything from
when I lost my son to SIDS. And on top of that, the financial burden was
crushing—neither of us could work, and my husband’s Crohn’s disease flared from
the stress.”
When she was finally allowed to undergo the procedure, the
word “abortion” appeared on her paperwork. “It broke me,” she said.
Now, Weber is speaking out in hopes of sparking change. “I
hope some good comes out of this really terrible situation. This is dangerous
for women. This is hurting women.”
0 Comments