A Kentucky lawmaker had a nonviable pregnancy. State abortion bans made her loss more agonizing

Burke and her husband, Spencer, knew they wanted kids before they married. But conceiving proved difficult. After the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted their efforts to foster, they decided to try in-vitro fertilization.

Burke underwent her first IVF egg retrieval in late 2021, right around the time she put her name in to run for public office.

She’d gotten pregnant for the first time in February 2022, but miscarried about eight weeks later.

The whiplash from swelling excitement to immediate loss was hard.

Burke was 38 at the time she was diagnosed with “recurrent pregnancy loss,” according to her medical chart, which she shared with the Herald-Leader.

“The day we found out, we probably disrupted the entire medical office,” Burke said. “Just both of us wailing.

“My husband had a panic attack.”

As is sometimes the case with miscarriages, her body didn’t recognize it right away; her gestational sac was still growing, but there was no longer a developing fetus inside it.

Burke said her doctor explained her three options: expectant management, which is to wait until her body realized it was no longer pregnant and miscarry on its own – a process that could take weeks; a dose of mifepristone and misoprostol, common abortion medication to usher the process sooner and in a more controlled way; or schedule a dilation and curettage abortion to remove the pregnancy tissue physically, allowing her to try and conceive again sooner.

It was spring 2022, and Burke was campaigning for a May primary election.

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