​At 18 weeks and 5 days, I had my anatomy scan for my third child. During the scan, they found four severe abnormalities. First, they found that she had myelomeningocele spina bifida and her spinal cord was protruding from her spine where there was a hole in her neural tube. With that, she had hydrocephalus - an excess of cerebrospinal fluid surrounding her brain. Also, she had a giant omphalocele, where her organs were growing outside of her abdomen. Lastly, she was missing the bottom half of her left leg. She would have suffered from brain damage, paralyzation, incontinence, and several other health issues. My doctor let me know the realistic future our daughter had without several surgeries (that she likely didn’t qualify for given the other abnormalities) and a whole lot of luck. She told me that one of the abnormalities could be managed but all four are really incompatible with life. My husband and I were devastated. We were so excited for this pregnancy and were caught completely off guard. We live in a state where abortion is illegal with very few exceptions. We took as much time as we could to discuss if we wanted to continue the pregnancy but realized we were not going to win - our daughter was not going to make it to term or have the life we hoped for her. I made very last minute hotel reservations and flight reservations and panicked childcare arrangements for our other children and went as quickly as I could to a state where abortion is legal. Complete strangers showed me more kindness and compassion than the state that had been my home for over 25 years. Almost 1000 miles away from our home, I said goodbye to our daughter with love and care and dignity. I miss her every single day.