At four months pregnant, Miranda Michel received crushing news: as soon as her twins were born, they would die.
Doctors told her that her babies had twisted spines. Organs were hanging out of their bodies, or hadn’t developed yet at all. One of the babies had a clubbed foot; the other, a big bubble of fluid at the top of his neck.
Though the babies had a zero percent chance of viability, they still had a heartbeat. And Texas’ new abortion laws required her to see the pregnancy through.
Living in rural northeast Texas, Miranda was surrounded by abortion bans in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.Though she worried about taking on all the risks of a complicated multiple pregnancy, with no hope of healthy babies at the end, the idea of circumventing the law and fleeing the state for medical care terrified her.
As the pregnancy continued, the physical and emotional toll fell heavily on Miranda, her partner Levi Langley and their families. She tried to hope for a miracle for her babies. But additional specialists and tests kept producing the same answer: These babies would not survive.
“I had hope. I fought for them. I tried not believing what [my doctors] were saying. And now, I have no other options,” Miranda said.
The day of the babies’ birth, Miranda spent two hours in surgery as doctors performed a C-section. Her twins, Helios and Perseus Langley, died in her arms four hours after they were born.
In the days after their death, Miranda battled with grief, sometimes waking up in the middle of the night after dreams that her 9-month-old had stopped breathing. The family held a funeral for the twins just a week after their birth.
Though they prepared for this, living through it was like “having open- heart surgery without anesthetics,” Levi said. “Every heartbeat feels like your heart is going to explode.”
“I know I’ve got kids here who need me too. But those boys — all they gotta do is wait for me. I’ll teach them hunting, fishing. We’ll get in a buggy and drive around. We’re going to have some fun when it’s my time,” Levi said.
Maximum pain, suffering, and misery has always been the goal. The anti-choice movement has never been about protecting life. It’s about keeping women captured in a male preferred construct where they’re kept under control and have little agency
“This is what god wanted.” – GOP: The Pro Rape, Forced Birth, Pain and Suffering party.
Texas blows.
The forced birth crowd should never be called pro life. The undue harm to women continues under zealots of Texas. Sure hate personal freedom in Texas might as well be communist Russia there with their crooked elections
Here’s the thing about Texas: It is horrible.
The cruelty is mind numbingly awful
This is so fucking ghoulish. The levels of cruelty that people want to inflict on others just knows no bounds.
Ah Texas. The land of the free!
All of these dead babies should be buried on the front lawn of the State legislator.
When the government interferes like this, shouldn’t the Government have to pay the hospital bills – as they are forcing “their will” over the will of the lady and/or her doctor – causing unnecessary pain and expense?
Well that sounds like a fucking nightmare
Women should sue the government for medical bills related to carrying the pregnancy to term.
OB appointments, labor and delivery charges, ICU charges. Everything
When are Texans gonna wake TF up?
These people need to start suing. Let these become the new RvW
A crime against women and their families. And all to prove a point A point that none of them have a clue about.
Maybe more people in Texas will get off their asses and vote next year.
SO sad, and they will all still vote republican, and fly trump flags proudly.
I would bomb my state capital without second thought the moment my wife gets denied care. Any GOP voter is complicit piece of shit
Another compelling Reason not to live or travel to Texas
This is what the right-wing calls ‘abortion at 9 months or after the baby is born’. They want miracle life support even if the baby has no chance of survival, otherwise it is an abortion.
It is morally and ethically permissible to defend one’s bodily integrity by any means necessary
Forced birth is Barbarism
These laws are inhumane, stripping the rights of women. This is not a good time to be a woman in this country.
The GOP, Conservatives, etc. truly are a terrorist organization
Man… this is honestly very fucking horrible. This poor mother and father. Texas really is a fucked up place.
“Your babies won’t survive, but their still alive. So, give birth to them and watch as they die in your arms. Sorry. It’s the law.”
Some people really are ass-backwards in this world.
The cruelty imposed upon this family and others like them is unacceptable.
Torturing the poor as those with means (money, time) will travel even as GOP tries to deny travel access too.
This is one of the hardest things I have ever read, and yet so well written. The writer did a fantastic job of giving a voice to these hurting people, and reminding us that we are all complex people with conflicting emotions and beliefs. Please by all means, do whatever you can to help our government system better serve it’s people. We could not have prevented all of this pain, but we certainly should not be making it worse.
Cruel and unacceptable.
It is easy to say why don’t these people just move, but for those who are in or near the poverty level, and have little resources, this is impossible.
States like Texas and Idaho are putting women’s lives in danger.
The argument that conservatives are pro-life is a travesty. They really do not care about children or women’s reproductive health at all.
In Idaho, a hospital closed its maternity ward citing the political climate and more maternity wards are closing across the country.
In America, where the maternal mortality rate is shockingly high, conservatives have a full on assault on women’s health.
Don’t forget which party took us back to this point at the ballot box. This is what Republicans do to their fellow American citizens and they don’t give a fuck about the repercussions of it either because their personal religion is based on suffering.
How is it possible for such a misguided party of people, the GOP, to force any woman, couple or family go through what these people had to endure? Those people are despicable. I wish them all, to live their lives, burdened by the same grief and pain I feel for this family!
And then the state sued her for murder /j
For real though its horrific having to deal with this. Im so sorry for her….
Edit: ment to use /j. Not a morning person
the GOP hates women and kids
This is barbaric.
See you in November 2024 when voters will tell you exactly how much they support your Theocratic style of governance.
My heart goes out to this mother and her family. People voted for the politicians into office so that laws will be passed to control the women in the state. Time reap how they voted.
The other thing that is totally bonkers to me is the cost for all this. Getting an abortion at 4 months is less invasive and cheaper than a full term pregnancy c section. Costs go up because you have the uninsured who can’t afford this. Such backward ass thinking.
Sounds like Debbie Reynolds’ story.
The difference is that Debbie’s ordeal was over 60 years ago and I thought we no longer tolerated this bullshit.
The article mentions that the family of the father of the twins are Trump supporters. I wonder if this has had ANY impact on that. I kinda doubt it, but I hope so. 🤞
39 comments
At four months pregnant, Miranda Michel received crushing news: as soon as her twins were born, they would die.
Doctors told her that her babies had twisted spines. Organs were hanging out of their bodies, or hadn’t developed yet at all. One of the babies had a clubbed foot; the other, a big bubble of fluid at the top of his neck.
Though the babies had a zero percent chance of viability, they still had a heartbeat. And Texas’ new abortion laws required her to see the pregnancy through.
Living in rural northeast Texas, Miranda was surrounded by abortion bans in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.Though she worried about taking on all the risks of a complicated multiple pregnancy, with no hope of healthy babies at the end, the idea of circumventing the law and fleeing the state for medical care terrified her.
As the pregnancy continued, the physical and emotional toll fell heavily on Miranda, her partner Levi Langley and their families. She tried to hope for a miracle for her babies. But additional specialists and tests kept producing the same answer: These babies would not survive.
“I had hope. I fought for them. I tried not believing what [my doctors] were saying. And now, I have no other options,” Miranda said.
The day of the babies’ birth, Miranda spent two hours in surgery as doctors performed a C-section. Her twins, Helios and Perseus Langley, died in her arms four hours after they were born.
In the days after their death, Miranda battled with grief, sometimes waking up in the middle of the night after dreams that her 9-month-old had stopped breathing. The family held a funeral for the twins just a week after their birth.
Though they prepared for this, living through it was like “having open- heart surgery without anesthetics,” Levi said. “Every heartbeat feels like your heart is going to explode.”
“I know I’ve got kids here who need me too. But those boys — all they gotta do is wait for me. I’ll teach them hunting, fishing. We’ll get in a buggy and drive around. We’re going to have some fun when it’s my time,” Levi said.
Maximum pain, suffering, and misery has always been the goal. The anti-choice movement has never been about protecting life. It’s about keeping women captured in a male preferred construct where they’re kept under control and have little agency
“This is what god wanted.” – GOP: The Pro Rape, Forced Birth, Pain and Suffering party.
Texas blows.
The forced birth crowd should never be called pro life. The undue harm to women continues under zealots of Texas. Sure hate personal freedom in Texas might as well be communist Russia there with their crooked elections
Here’s the thing about Texas: It is horrible.
The cruelty is mind numbingly awful
This is so fucking ghoulish. The levels of cruelty that people want to inflict on others just knows no bounds.
Ah Texas. The land of the free!
All of these dead babies should be buried on the front lawn of the State legislator.
When the government interferes like this, shouldn’t the Government have to pay the hospital bills – as they are forcing “their will” over the will of the lady and/or her doctor – causing unnecessary pain and expense?
Well that sounds like a fucking nightmare
Women should sue the government for medical bills related to carrying the pregnancy to term.
OB appointments, labor and delivery charges, ICU charges. Everything
When are Texans gonna wake TF up?
These people need to start suing. Let these become the new RvW
A crime against women and their families. And all to prove a point A point that none of them have a clue about.
Maybe more people in Texas will get off their asses and vote next year.
SO sad, and they will all still vote republican, and fly trump flags proudly.
I would bomb my state capital without second thought the moment my wife gets denied care. Any GOP voter is complicit piece of shit
Another compelling Reason not to live or travel to Texas
This is what the right-wing calls ‘abortion at 9 months or after the baby is born’. They want miracle life support even if the baby has no chance of survival, otherwise it is an abortion.
It is morally and ethically permissible to defend one’s bodily integrity by any means necessary
Forced birth is Barbarism
These laws are inhumane, stripping the rights of women. This is not a good time to be a woman in this country.
The GOP, Conservatives, etc. truly are a terrorist organization
Man… this is honestly very fucking horrible. This poor mother and father. Texas really is a fucked up place.
“Your babies won’t survive, but their still alive. So, give birth to them and watch as they die in your arms. Sorry. It’s the law.”
Some people really are ass-backwards in this world.
The cruelty imposed upon this family and others like them is unacceptable.
Torturing the poor as those with means (money, time) will travel even as GOP tries to deny travel access too.
This is one of the hardest things I have ever read, and yet so well written. The writer did a fantastic job of giving a voice to these hurting people, and reminding us that we are all complex people with conflicting emotions and beliefs. Please by all means, do whatever you can to help our government system better serve it’s people. We could not have prevented all of this pain, but we certainly should not be making it worse.
Cruel and unacceptable.
It is easy to say why don’t these people just move, but for those who are in or near the poverty level, and have little resources, this is impossible.
States like Texas and Idaho are putting women’s lives in danger.
The argument that conservatives are pro-life is a travesty. They really do not care about children or women’s reproductive health at all.
In Idaho, a hospital closed its maternity ward citing the political climate and more maternity wards are closing across the country.
In America, where the maternal mortality rate is shockingly high, conservatives have a full on assault on women’s health.
Don’t forget which party took us back to this point at the ballot box. This is what Republicans do to their fellow American citizens and they don’t give a fuck about the repercussions of it either because their personal religion is based on suffering.
How is it possible for such a misguided party of people, the GOP, to force any woman, couple or family go through what these people had to endure? Those people are despicable. I wish them all, to live their lives, burdened by the same grief and pain I feel for this family!
And then the state sued her for murder /j
For real though its horrific having to deal with this. Im so sorry for her….
Edit: ment to use /j. Not a morning person
the GOP hates women and kids
This is barbaric.
See you in November 2024 when voters will tell you exactly how much they support your Theocratic style of governance.
My heart goes out to this mother and her family. People voted for the politicians into office so that laws will be passed to control the women in the state. Time reap how they voted.
The other thing that is totally bonkers to me is the cost for all this. Getting an abortion at 4 months is less invasive and cheaper than a full term pregnancy c section. Costs go up because you have the uninsured who can’t afford this. Such backward ass thinking.
Sounds like Debbie Reynolds’ story.
The difference is that Debbie’s ordeal was over 60 years ago and I thought we no longer tolerated this bullshit.
The article mentions that the family of the father of the twins are Trump supporters. I wonder if this has had ANY impact on that. I kinda doubt it, but I hope so. 🤞