'I didn’t want one, but I needed one.' An Idaho mother comes to Washington for an abortion
Kayla Smith and her husband were excited to expand their family when they learned that they would be having a baby boy. They already picked the name, Brooks.
But they soon learned something else. A routine anatomy scan revealed that Brooks had an inoperable heart defect. Two days before receiving this news, Roe v Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Idaho had passed a trigger law, banning abortion in the state when Roe v Wade was overturned. It’s one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country.
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“With that news, we knew that if we stayed in Idaho, I would be forced to stay pregnant until my due date,” Smith said. “Unless, God forbid, I get preeclampsia again.”
This was Smith’s second pregnancy. She already gave birth to her daughter, Addison. During that pregnancy, she suffered from preeclampsia, a high blood pressure condition that can have serious health effects on a mother and a baby. The condition sent her to an emergency room.
Doctors warned her that she had a high chance of suffering from the same issue during her second pregnancy.
“At that point we were really struggling,” she said. “Do I continue to put my life at risk, when we can’t even bring our son home?”
It was a situation that Smith didn’t expect to ever be in. She grew up very conservative in the Seattle area. She moved to Idaho in 2010 for college and stayed there to build a life. She never thought that life would include an abortion, but Smith ended up on an unexpected path that led her back to Washington state, and eventually, Washington, D.C. She now argues that the abortion issue is very nuanced, not “black and white.”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t want one, but I needed one,” Smith said. “I didn’t want my son to suffer, and there was nothing I could do for him. The one thing that my husband felt we could do was to make sure he didn’t suffer.”
When President Biden delivered his State of the Union address March 7, Smith was in the room as a guest of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington). Kayla has shared her story as part of Murray's campaign to keep abortion rights in the spotlight for Democrats.
“There are state laws banning the freedom to choose criminalizing doctors, forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states to get the treatment they need,” Biden said in his address. “Many of you in this chamber, and my predecessor, are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom. My God, what freedom else would you take away?”
Smith says she was honored to be there, and couldn’t have asked for a better State of the Union speech from the president. There is one line from the president that she is still thinking about.
“If you, the American people, send me to Congress to support the right to choose, I promise you, I will restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land, again,” Biden said.
With a promise like that, Smith hopes that women like her won’t have to go through the same experience she did.
From Idaho to Washington for an abortion
Smith says her doctor was emotional when delivering the news about her unborn son.
“She said, ‘You know, if you do decide to end this pregnancy, I am sorry. There’s nothing I can do for you here in the state of Idaho anymore,’” Smith recalled.
Smith still stays in touch with that doctor, but has since moved out of Idaho. The abortion ban, and fear of litigation, prompted the move. Smith traveled to Washington state in 2022 to end the pregnancy with Brooks. She had to take out a $16,000 personal loan because her Idaho-based insurance would not cover the procedure.
“I realize that the reality is, many women seeking abortions are not able to come up with that money,” Smith said, noting how thankful she is for friends and family who offered financial and emotional support.
After the abortion in Washington state, and after some time, Smith became pregnant again, with her daughter, Nora. Once again, the issue of preeclampsia was raised. She wanted to feel safe this time.
“I already felt strongly about my daughter [Addison] having bodily autonomy,” Smith said.
Smith wanted to leave Idaho for her daughters, “so my husband and I just felt that we couldn't stay and raise our daughters in a state with no bodily autonomy. And God forbid something happened to me again during that pregnancy.”
Smith and her family moved to Washington in 2023. She says she still loves Idaho, but “it’s not off the table for us to move back, if the law changes. But, we also really love Washington, too.”
She hasn’t completely cut ties with Idaho, either. She is part of a lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion ban. Adkins vs Idaho was filed in September 2023.
