The screenshot taken from CNN's website on Feb. 15, 2023 shows the picture and title of its recent report on the anguish and agony of the Ohio couple Beth and Kyle Long who couldn't have their baby born and had to have abortion in another state. (Xinhua)
During that three-week wait, a wait they had to endure only because of the Ohio law, the risk to Beth of potentially deadly complications grew.
NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- A mother-to-be in the Midwestern U.S. state of Ohio had to travel to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, for abortion just because the state law bans her health insurance from paying for her operation, according to a recent CNN report.
For four years, Beth and Kyle Long tried to have a baby. After Beth finally became pregnant in September 2022, an ultrasound showed that most of the baby's organs were outside the body. The condition is called limb body wall complex.
The baby couldn't survive, and the condition posed dangers for Beth too -- the bigger the baby was, the higher the risk of complications, including dangerous bleeding that might require a hysterectomy.
The Longs tried to schedule the abortion, only finding that state law bans her health insurance from paying for abortions except in certain cases. Endangerment to the life of the mother is one of them.
"It took them three weeks to make arrangements to go to a hospital that could perform the complicated abortion at a lower price. It was hours away, in another state," said the report.
During that three-week wait, a wait they had to endure only because of the Ohio law, the risk to Beth of potentially deadly complications grew. "I was in mental anguish," Beth said. "It felt very inhumane for both our baby and for my wife," Kyle added. ■
