“Viability has actually been an ambiguous concept that policymakers around the country are getting away from,” Seago said.
One of the reasons SB 8 used the objective presence of cardiac activity was to avoid the issue of “viability,” said Texas Right to Life legislative director John Seago. But for the time being, the condition is considered imminently fatal. Many of the symptoms of the condition are painful.Īdvocates argue that more could be done to improve the odds of survival in babies with severe genetic disorders like trisomy 18, and claim that labeling the condition “incompatible with life” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Of those babies born with the chromosomal abnormality, the median lifespan is 10-14 days, and only 12% percent survive until age 5. It’s difficult to find consistent information on the chance of a baby with the condition being born alive because so many women decide to terminate their pregnancies once they are told their baby has trisomy 18. “We looked it up and we realized how terrible it really was,” Joseph said. But when the results came in around her 15th week of pregnancy, her doctor delivered devastating news: The baby had trisomy 18, also known as Edwards syndrome, which is, in most cases, fatal before the baby's first birthday. When Joseph arrived at her genetic screening appointment in 2019, she wasn't expecting to hear anything that would lead her to terminate the pregnancy. Kendra Joseph and her daughter Adalynn prepare food for their dogs at their home in San Antonio on Oct. “We don’t talk about pregnancy loss ,” she said. It stunned her, in a way, how unprepared she was. In 2018, Joseph had her first miscarriage. The average age for giving birth has increased in Texas, from 26.1 years old in 2009 to 28.3 years old in 2018, and is higher in the metro areas. Having been advised it might take longer to get pregnant as she was reaching what doctors consider “advanced maternal age,” the couple soon began to try for a second child. She hoped to spend more time with her daughter, Adalynn, and the sibling or siblings she assumed would follow.
When Joseph's first child was born five years ago - a daughter conceived and delivered with the kind of predictability Joseph took for granted - she left her job as a middle school theater and debate teacher and started working as a real estate agent. When a doctor tells an expectant parent their child’s condition is “incompatible with life” or “lethal,” they find themselves in a world of gray. Chromosomal conditions, malformed vital organs and other severe fetal abnormalities can develop along the way. But for hundreds of thousands of pregnant Texans, especially those who face tough or unusual pregnancies, that cardiac activity is the starting point.
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