Obstetrician-gynecologists from across Wisconsin had decided that “in cases of previable PPROM, every patient should be offered termination of pregnancy due to the significant risk of ascending infection and potential sepsis and death,” said Eliza Bennett, the OB-GYN who treated Ashley. Ashley needed an abortion to save her life. The couple called their parents; Ashley’s mom arrived at the hospital to console them. Under the 1849 Wisconsin abortion ban, Bennett, an associate clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, needed two other physicians to attest that Ashley was facing death.
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