By GTHQ founder Asha Dahya
“Is this enough blood for you?!”
These were the words uttered by a frustrated Mindy Swank, who at 27 weeks pregnant was hemorrhaging blood, clearly experiencing something very wrong, but who was not able to get a lifesaving abortion due to the restrictions in the Catholic hospital system she was trying to get care from. The hospital staff could see she was bleeding, and that her water had broken, but refused to help her because there was “not enough blood”.
Upon returning home, as she continued to bleed over the next few days, she came up with the idea to collect all the blood-soaked pads she had been wearing, and take them to the hospital to prove she needed care now. She placed the bag of blood soaked pads on the desk, demanding to know “is this enough blood for you?!”.
The staff then proceeded to weigh her pads against the weight of an empty pad, to ensure that she was bleeding enough, to give her the help she needed. It ended up being an extremely traumatic experience for Mindy, being diagnosed with PTSD a few years later.
Mindy received a diagnosis early in her 2nd trimester of pregnancy that the fetus’ brain was not developed, among other medical issues, and that he would not be compatible with life outside the womb. Instead of being able to turn to her doctors to choose to terminate soon after receiving this devastating news, throughout the rest of her second trimester and early into her third, she met barrier upon barrier, saw 10 doctors in total, none of whom were able to help her terminate because of the laws that prohibit abortion in the Catholic hospital system. Although they may say they can perform an abortion if the pregnant person’s life or health is in danger, the reality is much different.
“All I kept thinking was that it never had to be this way,” recalls Mindy in a new short documentary detailing her and 2 other women’s experiences trying to get a later abortion amid numerous barriers in a hostile landscape, even when Roe v Wade still existed.
I directed and produced the award-winning short documentary ‘SOMEONE YOU KNOW’ in 2020 with the hope that it could be a useful resource for people to push back on later abortion stigma in the lead up to the 2020 Presidential election. Due to prolonged COVID spread, juggling a newborn baby and a toddler, and a lack of funding at the time, I had to set the project aside temporarily. I had no idea that in 2025 these stories I captured would be even more relevant and urgent. And my message to audiences is that being pro choice is not enough. Based on what is happening in the U.S. today now that Roe v Wade is gone, we need to be fighting for abortion access throughout all stages of pregnancy, for anyone who needs it.
Mindy’s story is not an isolated incident. What is most startling is that it took place before Roe was overturned in 2022, making her story, as well as the recent high profile stories of Kate Cox and Amanda Zurawski in Texas, proof that America has been extremely hostile toward abortion seekers, especially those needing later abortion, for quite some time.
Thankfully, Kate Cox was able to leave her home state and get care elsewhere. For others, however, the hostile landscape toward later abortion hasd held much more serious consequences. Another Texas woman named Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick was experiencing severe medical complications later in her pregnancy in early 2022. Due to her lack of healthcare access coupled with the state’s SB8 law at the time, Yeniifer sadly died in what some medical experts have described as a preventable death, if the doctors were able to advise her to seek a termination earlier on to save her life.
Needing an abortion later in pregnancy in the United States today is extremely hard to access. It is a race against the clock, and your outcome will be dependent on your zip code, your socio-economic status, your access to good healthcare, and even your race.
For Valerie Peterson, the second woman featured in my short film, being based in Texas meant she quickly became acquainted with what it meant to receive a fatal fetal diagnosis into her second trimester, while also learning that her own doctor in her home state would not be able to do anything for her. In her case, similar to Kate Cox, Valerie was able to leave the state and receive care elsewhere, but the whole experience left her angry. Angry that her own doctor could not help her, angry that she had to leave her home state, and angry that she, and many others like her, became the victims of anti-abortion laws that did nothing to protect her or the life of her fetus, instead put her directly in harm’s way.
“The doctor that I had been with all this time, couldn’t perform the procedure because of some law, that someone who’s never had experience with what I had to go through, wrote,” she says in the film.
Here’s what I’ve learned from documenting Mindy, Valerie, and a third woman Sharon Lagos in my film: Later abortion patients receive the bulk of harassment, and often come up against confusing laws and deliberate misinformation. And it’s not just for medical reasons either. More than ever, as Sharon’s story illustrates in my film, too many pregnant people are being pushed later and later into pregnancy by the time they seek a termination due to the numerous barriers to access and hostile, anti-abortion laws in their state. This, coupled with clinic closures, the overturn of Roe v Wade, and the need to seek approval from another entity such as a judge, or (in Kate Cox’s experience) a denial from a state attorney general, means that being pregnant in America today can be harmful at best, or fatal at worst.
When I look at what happened to all of these women, as a mother who has gone through pregnancy and birth, I am horrified at what is allowed to happen in the name of upholding political lines, religious extremism and the general cultural disdain for women and pregnant people being allowed to make the best decisions for their lives free from interfering sources.
But I also know where the fervor originates. As a former anti-abortion Evangelical Christian, I spent a lot of time in my former conservative church community hearing vague, emotionally-charged language around abortion, which all but erased the person who was pregnant at the center of all of these decisions. It was about twisting bible verses or taking them out of context and making up religious epithets such as “God is pro life” in order to keep us congregants voting Republican, with abortion as the conveniently-weaponized winning ticket every time.
But who wins when a woman dies from a preventable condition, exacerbated by laws that stripped her of the agency to save her own life?
After learning about the numerous women who had secretly gotten abortions in my church, it confused me and disrupted what I thought was a firm stance on the issue. This challenge to my views sent me on a decade-long journey to learning more about abortion beyond the politicized pro choice and pro life slogans. Beyond the compelling data that showed how common abortion is (1 in 4 women in America) and who the majority are (women of color and mothers), it was people sharing their very personal, nuanced and layered stories that really opened my eyes to believing that there is now way any law can account for or legislate what we do with our bodies without bringing significant harm to the most marginalized and vulnerable people in our communities.
Today, as a mother of two, a filmmaker, a progressive who proudly supports abortion rights and access, I am wholeheartedly using my voice to support abortion storytellers in the hope their experiences can challenge and change more hearts and minds, as it did mine.
Films and documentaries have the power to enlighten us and inspire change. As many of us in the repro rights and justice landscape observe March 28 as the Global Day of Action to Destigmatize Abortions, films like SOMEONE YOU KNOW are more urgent than ever. My hope is that I can empower and encourage more pro choice voters, to be loud, bold, and unapologetic in pushing back against ugly rhetoric around later abortion, and challenge their own internal abortion stigma.
I have heard far too many well-meaning pro choice folks deferentially say, “I am pro choice, but not in the 7th or 8th month, that’s taking it too far”, without actually realizing they are helping to prop up anti-choice talking points, making it easier for states to enact laws that are hostile to later abortion seekers who make up a very small percentage of overall abortions each year in the United States.
No one should have to justify their reasons for making the best decision for their lives. Everyone deserves bodily autonomy, and the dignity and freedom to live in a world that safely supports their choices. But we are going to have to fight hard for this reality.
As Renee Bracey Sherman, founder of a leading abortion storytelling and advocacy organization WeTestify says in my film, “Everybody loves someone who has had an abortion, and it’s important to think about the stigma that we’re taking in, and putting out into the world, and how it impacts the people that we love.”
Please visit www.someoneyouknowdoc.com to see more resources about supporting later abortion. You can download a discussion guide created in partnership with Whonotwhen.com, a later abortion advocacy resource. If you are interested in hosting a (free!) screening at your organization, community center, religious organization, college, feminist group or any where else, please visit the contact page.
More than anything, if this film prompts you to have a conversation with someone in your life that chips away at even one piece of stigma about abortion later in pregnancy, then the film has achieved what it set out to do.
