‘Punished By God:’ Abortionist Fighting Kansas Pro-Life Law Details Harrowing Quadruplets Abortion

A group of abortionists suing to overturn a Kansas pro-life law were recently compelled to unseal hidden court records. The documents, released to the public earlier this month, include one of the plaintiff’s descriptions of her own harrowing abortion.

Dr. Traci Lynn Nauser recalled in a deposition how she came to be pregnant with quadruplets, attempted to abort two of the babies, and wound up killing all four.

“I felt like I was being punished by God — and I’m not even a religious person — for doing abortions,” Nauser said. “But I know it was the right thing.”

“I chose to have labor induction,” Nauser said. “Medically, to me, they’re fetuses. To me, as Traci Nauser, as the person that was pregnant, they were babies. They had names. Jordan was a girl. Drew was the boy. Jordan delivered, had a heartbeat, and I held her till she died in my arms. Drew, thank God, did not when he was born. So I didn’t have to have that trauma twice.”

“I have since grieved, been able to move on, never forgotten. Every Christmas I put up specific ornaments for them,” she said.

Nauser, who works at the Center for Women’s Health near Kansas City, is one of several abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, suing Kansas over state rules designed to make sure a woman is informed before she has an abortion. In April, the Kansas City Star intervened in the abortionists’ lawsuit, demanding they reveal hidden court records, including Nauser’s deposition. The abortion providers had filed certain court records as “confidential” or “attorneys’ eyes only.”

Kansas mandates that doctors meet with a woman 24 hours before her abortion, tell her the abortion pill is reversible, listen to the baby’s heartbeat 30 minutes before performing an abortion, post information about the risks of abortion in the abortion clinic, among other steps.

During her deposition, Nauser explained she struggled with infertility while trying to conceive with her husband, and how she turned to medications that stimulated her ovaries to release multiple eggs. At one point, her ovaries released four eggs.

“I said, we all know the chances of multiples is really low even in this situation. I just want to be pregnant. Let’s go for it. Oh, I got pregnant with quads,” she said.

“So now I’m pregnant with quads,” she continued. “And I know, as a doctor, the risks of a quadruple pregnancy and the successful outcome rates of that are extremely low. So I had to make the decision — or I made the decision with my husband to reduce it down to twins, which would be a much more successful likelihood pregnancy.”

Nauser said she had to fly to Detroit for the “reduction” procedure.

Everything went well after two of the quadruplets were aborted, until the day of her 20-week ultrasound when she felt “massive pressure” in her vagina. Nauser was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and brought to the operating room for a procedure to try to save her remaining two babies.

“I knew I was screwed before I even went to the OR because I saw my own ultrasound — my water broke,” she said. “I wake up in recovery. I remember saying something to the effect of, did they save them? And the answer’s, no.”

The risk of a dangerous infection to both mother and baby is extremely high when a pregnant woman’s water breaks too early.

Nauser went on to do in vitro fertilization and have two kids.

“I wouldn’t have them had I not been through everything that I’ve been through,” she said.

Nauser added that she explained abortion to her kids when they were 8 and 9 years old because she worried their classmates might say something after she appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss abortion in 2011.

“They were studying government at that age, and one said, I’m so confused, why are women talking to [Kansas] Governor [Sam] Brownback about their medical situations and not their doctors?” Nauser said. “If a freaking eight- and nine-year-old can figure this stuff out, so should adults.”

Nauser’s father is also an abortionist, and the pair practiced together at her father’s clinic until he retired. Despite the feelings she describes in her deposition, she seems to view her quadruple abortion as a net positive.

“I am a better doctor, I think, because of all of this. I get it,” she said.