Navigating Travel Decisions in a Post-Roe World.
When my husband and I sat down to plan next year’s vacation, the conversation took an unexpected turn. Instead of brainstorming destinations or exploring flight deals, I found myself researching abortion laws across the United States. Why? Because we are family planning, and if I am pregnant while traveling and experience a complication while on vacation in a state with an abortion ban, I might not receive the care I need — and the consequences could be catastrophic.
This isn’t hypothetical. Women are dying because of these laws. Nevaeh Crain, a young woman in Texas, experienced a fatal miscarriage the day of her baby shower after being denied critical care due to the state’s abortion ban. The delay in treatment cost her life. Josseli Barnica, also in Texas, died in a similar situation, where medical professionals, fearing legal repercussions, hesitated to intervene. She left behind a husband and daughter. These tragic cases are not outliers — they are the direct result of restrictive abortion laws that prioritize politics over lives.
Even states that claim to allow medical exceptions for abortions have created an environment where doctors are scared to act. Many healthcare providers require explicit legal approval before intervening, causing dangerous delays. For patients, this can mean waiting until their health deteriorates to life-threatening levels before receiving care. It’s a cruel and dehumanizing system, leaving pregnant individuals in limbo while their lives hang in the balance.
Many states do not even have health exceptions in their abortion bans.
Doctors face the possibility of losing their medical licenses, hefty fines, or even prison sentences if their decisions are deemed to violate these laws. This fear paralyzes the healthcare system, making pregnancy riskier than it has been in decades.
This legal landscape doesn’t just affect residents of restrictive states — it impacts travelers, too. What happens if you’re on vacation, far from home, and experience an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage? In states like Oklahoma, where abortion is banned with no exceptions, the outcome could be devastating. Even if exceptions exist, the chilling effect on medical professionals often results in delays that can turn manageable complications into fatal emergencies.
These concerns aren’t theoretical for me. I have family in Oklahoma begging me to visit. But as someone who is starting to think about family planning, the idea of traveling to a state with an all-out ban terrifies me. I shouldn’t have to weigh seeing my family against the risk of being denied life-saving care. But that’s the reality we’re living in.
Abortion bans are often framed as protecting life, but the evidence shows they’re costing lives instead. Laws that force doctors to choose between their patients’ health and their own legal safety are a public health disaster. They strip away the humanity of pregnant individuals, reducing them to political chess pieces rather than people deserving of compassion and care.
We deserve better. We deserve healthcare systems that prioritize our lives, not laws that force us into dangerous, avoidable situations. We deserve to live in a country where access to medical care isn’t determined by the state line you happen to cross.
If you’re as outraged by these stories as I am, now is the time to act. Support organizations fighting for reproductive rights, educate yourself about the laws in your state, and vote for leaders committed to protecting access to medical care. Most importantly, share these stories. Women’s lives were cut short because of policies that prioritize ideology over humanity. We owe it to them — and to ourselves — to demand change.
Traveling, family planning, and healthcare shouldn’t come with the risk of dying because of political interference. But until this changes, I’ll continue to carefully research where I go, advocate for better laws, and fight for the day when no one has to make these impossible decisions.
