The short life of Baby Milo

Today, a story about the uncharted legal territory of a new abortion law, and the consequences for families and doctors who end up in the middle.

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Nobody expected Baby Milo to live a long time. The unusual complications in his mother’s pregnancy tested the interpretation of Florida’s new abortion law. 

Earlier this year, Washington Post reporter Frances Stead Sellers shared the story of Deborah Dorbert, a woman who was carrying a pregnancy to term after being denied an abortion, despite the fetus having a rare fatal condition. Florida’s abortion ban includes an exception for fatal fetal abnormalities, but her doctors told her they could not act as long as the baby’s heart was beating.

While that story went viral around the world, Debbie continued to do the best she could to prepare for delivering a child that wouldn’t survive even a few hours.

Debbie and her husband Lee named their baby Milo. He lived for 99 minutes.