A woman from Missouri testified in front of a congressional committee this week about the harrowing details surrounding her self-managed abortion in a state that has banned most abortions.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, a trigger law took effect in Missouri that became one of the countrys most restrictive abortion bans, outlawing all abortions except in cases of medical emergency. The Supreme Court decision also prompted a huge increase in the sale of abortion pills . (Medication abortion is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. Though its use is technically still legal at the national level, it is challenging to obtain .)
Rev. Dr. Love Holt told the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Monday that she was rushed to an emergency room on Jan. 20 for severe blood loss.
I nodded in and out of consciousness in the lobby for several minutes as blood began dripping down my legs. I sat in that wheelchair and instead of thinking about survival, I thought about not going to jail, Holt told the committee members.
I told myself to make sure you tell the staff that youre having a miscarriage, but I knew I was having an abortion. I also knew that for that medication pill, [it] needed to be taken orally because it showed up like a miscarriage in front of the doctors, said Holt, who is from St. Louis.
Holt, a mother of five, is a community engagement manager at Abortion Action Missouri, an organization working toward reproductive freedom. Her bio on the Abortion Action Missouri website says she is an abortion doula, herbal womb practitioner and cultural competency consultant.
Holt, who describes herself as a pro-choice storyteller, believes she is one of the first people to testify to Congress about her personal experience with a self-managed abortion.
Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a member of the oversight committee who was at Mondays meeting, said that more people need to hear stories like Holts.
These are the stories that we need to hear more of in hearings in Congress because the reality is that Rev. Dr. Holts story is not an anomaly, Bush told HuffPost. Rather, it represents the reality of so many people struggling to terminate their pregnancies in states that have banned or severely limited access to abortion care.
Bush, along with Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), invited Love to Mondays meeting.
During the testimony, Holt described the day she took the medication abortion pill which she characterized as the day she almost died. Holt was approximately 13 weeks and six days pregnant on Jan. 20, but medication abortion pill guidelines recommend taking the pill before the 13-week mark.
But Missouris 2019 trigger law banned nearly all abortions, except during emergencies or when necessary to save the life of the birthing person. So Holt had to opt for a self-managed abortion, even if it meant taking the medication beyond the 13-week mark.
Holts first order of the pill had been stolen in the mail. And she didnt have the set of two pills until 18 days after ordering the second one.
Within 45 minutes of taking the pill, Holt said she experienced heavy bleeding, cramping and blood clots, then she became lightheaded.
According to Planned Parenthoods website , there are extremely rare instances in which a patient who takes the pill could face life-threatening complications including bleeding so heavy it saturates more than two maxi pads per hour or blood clots that are larger than the size of a lemon.
Medication abortion is regarded as safer than taking drugs like penicillin or Viagra , but in these rare instances, Planned Parenthood urges someone experiencing these symptoms to contact a doctor or health center immediately. However, someone living in a state with strict abortion laws, like Missouri, might decide to delay seeking medical advice or care out of fear of revealing the abortion.
Holts children were home as the bleeding persisted, so she decided to seclude herself in her car so her children wouldnt be traumatized by the sight of her bleeding. Holts kids later called Holts mother, who discovered her unresponsive in the car completely covered in blood.
Holt said that they rushed her to a Catholic-run hospital nearby, where she received a dilatation-and-curettage surgical procedure. Recounting the experience to HuffPost, Holt said the hospital staff then hosted a funeral service for the tissue she passed and even offered her a death certificate.
I was forced to participate in having my tissues in a mass grave with a headstone, Holt told HuffPost. I was sickened.
Holts story inspired her to talk to the congressional panel on behalf of many Missouri residents who have been left without access to abortions and must take extreme measures to obtain them.
Forcing people to carry unwanted pregnancies drives people into further positions of poverty, and poverty gives birth to violence and survival modes that make people unpredictable, and they do things that they would normally not do, like me, Holt said Monday.
I almost lost my life that day, she continued. I would have left my children, my Black children, alone in this cruel, cold world to navigate it alone. Nobody to protect them, nobody to support them.
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