My patient Lydia is a woman in her early thirties with four kids. Two of her children are twins. One of her twins was always quiet while the other very interactive and talkative. Lydia, her children, her sister and her sister’s children move around a lot as a unit looking for better job and school opportunities. They are currently settled in Chicago.

Earlier this year she obtained Medicaid and established pediatric care for her children. She learned that her quiet twin was nearly deaf. Lydia said this changed her life. Teaching her daughter to communicate was hard but she is finally catching on and beginning to thrive.

Teaching her daughter to communicate was hard but she is finally catching on and beginning to thrive.

Now Lydia is 22 weeks pregnant. She had decided she wanted an abortion when she realized she needed to focus financially and emotionally more on taking her daughter to the ear doctor. Her daughter was finally thriving. Lydia’s Medicaid is not accepted at our medical center in Chicago, and with her previous cesarean sections and our suspicion of abnormal placentation, there was a high risk of bleeding, which disqualified her from getting the procedure done in clinic under our self-pay option. She needed to get her procedure done in the operating room (OR). Our institution can offer a subsidized OR package of approximately $7000 on a case-by-case basis.

She had decided she wanted an abortion when she realized she needed to focus financially and emotionally more on taking her daughter to the ear doctor. Her daughter was finally thriving.

Lydia said she would pay it. She said, “Doctor, tell them my story. Tell them about my daughter. Tell them anything you have to tell them to about me. My privacy is nothing if it means I can focus on my daughter now.” Her subsidized OR payment plan was approved and she got her procedure. She went home safe to her family. Cases like Lydia’s remind me of something my grandmother shared with me a long time ago about her own miscarriage.

My grandmother said she started bleeding on public transit on her way to the hospital. She told me it wasn’t the abortion that she was angry about – it was the lack of privacy. By bleeding in public, her most personal agony was everyone’s to share. When I think about Lydia and her daughter, I realize that not only does she have $7000 dollars to pay off long-term for her care, but she would not have had to give up her privacy if she had had adequate coverage.