Lauren Miller from Dallas, sensed something was different with her second pregnancy. From the onset, she immediately began suffering from a pregnancy complication involving severe and constant nausea and vomiting. Detailed in her extensive pregnancy journal, Lauren and her husband, Jason, were excited to be expecting twins, but within a month, a new diagnosis changed everything. In September 2022, Lauren found out at 13 weeks that one of her twin fetuses had trisomy 18, a fatal fetal abnormality. Doctors told Lauren that continuing to carry a fetus with such a condition threatened her health and the health of her other twin. However, Lauren and Jason struggled to obtain information about their medical options because doctors feared the “aiding and abetting” provision of Texas law prevented them from openly discussing medical abortions. An eighth generation Texan, Lauren was forced to travel out of state to obtain a selective reduction, a termination procedure performed to safeguard her healthy twin. In March 2023, Lauren gave birth to a healthy baby boy she and Jason named Henry.
Lauren was one of the plaintiffs in Zurawski v. State of Texas, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Texas abortion laws. Highlighting the reality that financial resources dictate who is able to flee Texas to receive medically necessary abortion care, Lauren was featured in an NPR story with fellow co-plaintiff Samantha Casiano, as both women received fatal fetal abnormality diagnoses, yet only Lauren could afford to travel out of state to terminate her pregnancy.