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Miranda Michel cradles her twin sons Helios and Perseus Langley in her arms a day after delivery at Medical City Dallas in Dallas, TX on August 10, 2023. Unable to legally terminate the pregnancy in Texas despite the twins having lethal fetal anomalies and a zero percent chance of viability, Michel carried her twins to term.
Rural reproductive health in Texas

She was told her twin sons wouldn’t survive. Texas law made her give birth anyway.

Miranda Michel, 26, couldn’t leave the state for an abortion. But she also couldn’t bear the idea of carrying a nonviable pregnancy to term.

Levi Langley plays with his 9-month-old son Eros at his mother’s home in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on August 18, 2023.
Miranda Michel embraces her partner, Levi Langley, as they and their family enjoy the porch.
Miranda Michel was 16 weeks pregnant when she learned her twins’ spines were twisted; their organs were developing incorrectly; and they were not expected to survive outside the womb.
Scenes of New Boston, TX on September 30, 2023.
Michel’s family serves themselves plates of ham, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and green beans following the funeral service and burial in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on August 18, 2023.
A pro-life billboard alongside the I-30 highway, the route Miranda Michel would have to take to go between New Boston and Dallas, on September 30, 2023.
Artemis, 4, asks her mother Miranda Michel to come inside and play with her at Michel’s mother-in-law’s house in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on August 17, 2023.
Helios and Perseus Langley were born and died on Aug. 9, 2023. Miranda, Levi and his parents spent the next day with the babies, before they went to the funeral home, and invited a reporter and photographer to document the experience.
Parents Levi Langley and Miranda Michel lean on one another during the funeral service for their newborn twins in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on August 18, 2023.
The casket carrying twins Helios and Perseus Langley is carried out of the funeral home to be driven to the burial site in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on August 18, 2023.
A pastor reads from the bible as family and loved ones gather and embrace each other around the casket carrying Perseus and Helios Langley at a burial in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on August 18, 2023.
The Langley family enwraps themselves around Miranda Michel as they grieve the loss of new born twins Perseus and Helios during a burial service in Broken Bow, Oklahoma on August 18, 2023.

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