Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety
Synopsis
Americans have often moved between states for opportunities. Now they’re being forced to uproot themselves to escape hostile forces under Trump. Read an excerpt from The Guardian below.
Kayla Smith and Kylie Cooper Left Idaho for Washington and Minnesota to flee a strict abortion ban
Kayla Smith can pinpoint the exact moment she knew she had to leave. It was early in her third pregnancy, and she was scared.
Her first pregnancy had been difficult. She’d had severe pre-eclampsia–high blood pressure that can be life-threatening–and her daughter Addison had been born at 33 weeks. Her second pregnancy had ended tragically when she lost her son at 21 weeks due to a fatal heart defect.
Now it was third time lucky, and Smith was seeking reassurance from her doctor. Would she and her baby be OK?
The physician looked at her and said: “Idaho is not a safe place to be pregnant right now.” Then, as the devastating truth sank in, he added: “If you were my daughter, I’d have told you not to get pregnant in this state.”
There was little to discuss after that. “That pretty much sealed the deal for us,” Smith said.
The number of people internally displaced by anti-abortion laws is startling. A recent study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research of 13 states with strict abortion bans found that, between them, they are losing 36,000 residents every three months. Separate research released this month by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research revealed that one in five people planning to have children within the next decade have moved state, or know someone who has done so, to escape abortion restrictions.
Idaho has one of the most coldly unbending abortion bans; the state’s Defense of Life Act is an almost total prohibition.
The ban deeply affected how Smith’s second pregnancy unfolded. Two days after the state’s so-called “trigger law” became active, her baby–a boy she and her husband James had already named Brooks–was diagnosed with such a serious cardiac condition that they were told he was unlikely to survive beyond birth.
Were Smith to develop complications, her doctors told her they could not protect her: they would only be able to intervene if she were in mortal danger, by which point it might be too late. (The law only makes exception for rape, incest and where a doctor can affirmatively prove they acted to prevent the pregnant woman’s death – a concept that is so vaguely worded that it encourages doctors to wait until patients become sicker to avoid being prosecuted.)
So the Smiths took out a $16,000 personal loan to cover the costs of the procedure, travelled across state lines into neighboring Washington and, grieving their son, had a medically induced termination.
Afterwards, they returned home, and eventually tried for another baby. They weren’t yet ready to give up on Idaho. Kayla, 33, had moved there for college, and James, one year her junior, had been to school and trained as a pharmacist in the state. By the time of their third pregnancy, James had been promoted to pharmacy manager, Kayla was caring for Addison at home, and they had built their own home. They were living the Idaho dream.
But soon, the couple found themselves locked into a repetitive conversation. “We had it nightly for months,” Kayla said, “and we always came to the same decision–we probably need to leave.”
Meet the new American refugees fleeing across state lines for safety
Her life was at risk. Alabama didn’t care.
