my husband and i found out we were pregnant in september of that year, and we were thrilled. i had a miscarriage earlier that year and we had just started trying again. we initially were not going to do genetic testing, but i changed my mind when things started going wrong with the pregnancy. i was bleeding frequently and the baby always measured small on ultrasound. i went to see a specialist who finally told us the baby likely had triploidy, a lethal genetic condition that causes all of the baby’s chromosomes to be tripled. we had invasive testing done that confirmed the diagnosis. i was told at best my baby would be stillborn or die within her first minutes of life. i was told that i should terminate, but they would not perform the termination in the hospital as the baby had a heart beat. i couldn’t imagine carrying my daughter, my belly growing larger every day, while knowing she would suffocate at birth. for me, an abortion was the only option to end her suffering and my suffering humanely and with as little trauma as possible. driving up to the abortion clinic with protestors screaming made the worst day of my life exponentially worse. the staff at planned parenthood were angels, the nurses held my hand through the entire processing and for them i am endlessly grateful. my heart is still broken, but more so because now other women in my situation do not have a choice. they will be forced to carry their baby to term, knowing that their child will die while strangers congratulate them on their swollen bellies. for them i feel i must share my story.