Magon Hoffman grew up with four siblings in Ponca City, Oklahoma. She says watching her mother shaped how she thought about motherhood.
"Just watching my mom sacrifice everything to stay home with us. And while it was her choice, I knew from a very, very young age that that was not something that I wanted for myself, to be completely honest."
But when she went to college, she unexpectedly met Lane. She says the more time she spent with him, the more she began to wonder if he didn't have to give up everything about yourself to become a mother.
"Like, that's kind of crazy. But maybe this really is like a person who doesn't just want a wife and kids, but wants to be a dad, wants to be a husband. And even still, I was a little bit hesitant. And so we waited quite a while to get married. We dated for about five years.
"We got married, and then I actually created this baby bucket list of all the things that I wanted to do, and I wanted him to do with me that I needed to do before I had kids, just in case I somehow had miscalculated and was going to, you know, have to give everything up."
So Magon and her husband, Lane, spent two years marking things off the list. And then when it came time to start the family, she didn't think she would have any issues. She describes her family as fertile. Her mother and grandmother both had lots of siblings.
"So whenever we decided we were ready to have kids, I got off of birth control and then I just never started my period. And so I had no idea what to do. And so I called an OB and I was like, 'Hey, I never started my period.' And they were like, 'There's a chance you're pregnant, you need to come in.' And so I knew that I wasn't, but I went in and I definitely wasn't.
"And so they did an ultrasound and they were just able to see the initial symptoms of PCOS. And then some additional blood work was able to like verify that that's what was going on. And I consider myself very lucky. We never had to get to the steps of IVF or, you know, anything that I've watched friends and loved ones go through.
"So while it was very difficult, I was able to do kind of the more basic steps and just take some pills monthly. That kind of helped my eggs do what they needed to do to actually be fertilized and like, you know, produce a healthy baby."
Hoffman had her daughter, Laney, in 2019 after a rough pregnancy. She says Laney was about 3 years old when they found out she was pregnant again in late 2022. She says she had made up her mind that she didn't want to tell anybody that they were pregnant until they told Laney.
"I just did not like the idea of anybody knowing before she did, but I had such a deep fear of something going wrong that I decided I couldn't tell her until I made it through the first trimester. I just decided that would be a good time. At that point, I was able to breathe a little bit easier with her, and so it resulted in me actually never telling anyone."
Hoffman says when she was 14 weeks pregnant, she woke up in the middle of the night bleeding heavily. She was convinced she had miscarried, but when she went to the doctor, they told her a portion of her placenta had lifted off her cervix and she had a blood clot. Her doctor told her it was the second-largest blood clot he had ever seen. He said the only thing to do at this point was nothing.
After that, her physical activity was limited and she returned for weekly ultrasounds to monitor her as the bleeding continued.
"And about 17-ish, somewhere around there, I started to kind of think maybe she was looking small and my OB was like, 'This machine is not meant to look at babies, you know, like that's why we send you. We're just looking at the blood clot, like just go there,' and, you know, and just kind of reassured me.
"So I went to the anatomy scan and the tech starts doing it. And, you know, they measure the different, the arm, the angle to the knee, and all of it was looking just like a little bit smaller than I expected her to look. But they got to her head and her head, like I specifically remember that it only measured at 14 weeks."
And maternal-fetal medicine specialist came in after the results of the anatomy scan and gave a diagnosis of anencephaly, a defect where parts of the brain and skull are missing during development.
"He, you know, thankfully, just very clearly and calmly told us straight from the get-go, like, 'Unfortunately, your daughter is not compatible with life,' and put it in terms that made it very clear that this wasn't, this was, it was what it was. This wasn't a conversation that we were really going to be able to discuss anything.
"And I remember him specifically explaining what comfort care looked like, which essentially is once she was born, if she had made a full term, the things that they would be able to do to make her as comfortable as possible while we essentially watched her die. So him saying, you know, 'We'll make her as comfortable as we can until she passes.' It was just game over for me.
"I knew in that moment that there was no way, as a mom, that that was something I was going to put my child through. I had no doubt that at that moment, I knew that abortion was going to be the right thing for me. And, you know, right when he left and we left, my husband and I were from the very get-go on the same page."
At the time, Oklahoma banned nearly all abortions with narrow exceptions to save a pregnant woman's life. But there was no exception for a fatal fetal diagnosis, which was the case for Hoffman's pregnancy. She says her specialist gave her two options: stay pregnant in Oklahoma or leave the state. She chose the latter. She says she started calling clinics outside of Oklahoma.
"I'm just calling clinic after clinic and also trying to call the anatomy center for any guidance from them, and they're just not answering my phone calls. They're not returning my phone calls. They essentially ghosted me for like a full week. And by the time I finally heard back from them, I had already found a place in New Mexico.
"And the thing I always like to bring up is there's this idea that if you need care, just leave the state. My options were incredibly limited, for like in Kansas, for example, there was a two-week wait and once I... Two weeks long farther along for me, I was no longer able to get an abortion there because the bans are different and the rules are different everywhere.
"And so it wasn't just like, get in your car and go to, like, it was not that simple. There were not that many places that had availability and could specifically help with the things that I needed with."
Hoffman says because her insurance would not cover an out-of-state procedure, she had to pay out of pocket. Because she was later in her pregnancy by the time she received abortion care, the procedure took two days. In an interview with Oklahoma Watch in 2023, she says she spent nearly $6,000 on the procedure, travel expenses and lodging.
Magon and another mother, Sheena Hamlin, are now suing the state of Oklahoma. The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the lawsuit on the mothers' behalf on Sept. 16. Caroline Sacerdote is a senior staff attorney for the center.
"Here we are seeking to block Oklahoma abortion bans, specifically in the context of pregnancies where there is a fatal fetal diagnosis, because that is the situation our plaintiffs found themselves in. But I do think it's important to remember that abortion care is an essential part of maternal health care, and all people should have access to abortion care."
The Center for Reproductive Rights brought forward a lawsuit in 2022 on the issue of abortion care. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that "requiring one to wait until there is a medical emergency would further endanger the life of the pregnant woman and does not serve a compelling state interest." But that ruling did not include a fatal fetal diagnosis alone.
Two other plaintiffs in this lawsuit are board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Elizabeth Pinard and Dr. Sarah Mashburn. Sacerdote says doctors want to help their patients, but Oklahoma is stopping them because of Oklahoma's abortion ban.
"Doctors face jail time and the loss of their medical license for helping patients. And so that's why we have doctors who are standing up and filing lawsuits in order to be able to provide the care that they are trained to provide and that they want to provide. That's exactly what doctors Pinard and Mashburn are doing in this case. They are forced to go into court so that they can provide necessary health care to their patients.
"And we know that doctors should be able to use their medical judgment and offer the standard of care. There is absolutely no reason for the state of Oklahoma to be in the exam room with patients and doctors, but that's exactly what abortion bans are doing."
Moore: Was it hard to get an OB-GYN to sign on to the lawsuit?
“Sorry, I'm just taking a beat to think about the extent to which I can comment on that. I guess what I can say about that is we know doctors want to be able to treat their patients, and also they want to spend their time providing health care, not fighting battles in court.
“And we are really honored at the Center for Reproductive Rights to stand with doctors who are willing to join the fight in court so that they can provide health care to their patients.”
The court filing says Mashburn has seen several patients whose pregnancies have been diagnosed with fatal fetal conditions. One patient received a diagnosis that meant that the fetus did not have an abdominal wall, and the developing heart, liver and lungs were just free-floating in the amniotic sac.
The specific patient wanted to terminate the pregnancy, but financial and logistical barriers prevented her from leaving Oklahoma. She went into spontaneous early labor, and the child was provided with comfort care before dying.
Sacerdote says this lawsuit is recognition that people have basic rights in the Oklahoma Constitution.
"Oklahomans have the rights to life and liberty, and that includes the ability to make these deeply personal decisions and to access health care in their communities, with their families nearby and from their trusted providers. And that's what's at stake in this case."
Hoffman says she believes if you have access and support that others don't, you should feel some level of obligation to help.
"I knew that if there was ever an opportunity to use my story to help other people, that I would be willing to. Now, I can also admit that I had hoped I would never have to. You know, this isn't a fun thing to relive. But if there's even one family who gets spared the absolute torture that my family went through, I would do it time and time again to help them."
Ozarks at Large reached out to the Oklahoma Attorney General's office to comment on this case. They told us they are reviewing the lawsuit.
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