When Ashley Brandt and her husband learned she was pregnant with identical twin girls in 2022, she was ecstatic. But one twin's diagnosis with acrania — a rare, fatal congenital disorder characterized by the full or partial absence of cranial bones — sent Brandt's world into a grief-stricken tailspin. It also meant that the lives of both her and her viable child were now at risk.
Brandt and her twins' circumstances didn't qualify for an exception under Texas' Senate Bill 8 abortion ban, which forced her to flee the state to access care. With the help of family and friends, Brandt would travel to Colorado for an abortion just two weeks before the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which she said left her terrified that her loved ones or medical team could face consequences.
