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Alicia Henry Harris refused her doctor’s recommendation to kill her baby in an abortion after a breast cancer diagnosis at 14 weeks, choosing treatment while carrying her daughter instead of ending the baby’s life.
Harris, then 37 and already a mother of two boys, found a lump during a prenatal visit in 2021. Tests confirmed invasive ductal carcinoma, grade 3. Her first physician advised ending the pregnancy so treatment could start immediately.
“The first doctor I spoke to said it was grade three cancer, and so they recommended I terminate the pregnancy,” Harris said. “I decided for myself that I wanted to see if that was true and get other opinions to see what was right for me and my family.”
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She located a doctor who had treated another pregnant mother with cancer and followed a similar plan. Harris had a lumpectomy in her second trimester and began chemotherapy in the third.
“Knowing that the woman ahead of me went through it, and her baby was fine, we did what was best for us,” she said.
In her account, Harris described the diagnosis: “Hearing the words ‘you have cancer’ while carrying a baby felt like my whole world stopped. I remember holding my stomach and praying for strength, not just for me but for the tiny life growing inside me.”
During chemotherapy her daughter kicked hard enough that a nurse asked whether it was Harris or the baby.
“That’s her letting you know she’s fighting too,” Harris replied. “Every kick reminded me to keep going, that she was fighting right along with me.”
Doctors induced labor at 36 weeks so she could finish chemotherapy and start radiation. Both survived. She named her daughter Journi “because that’s exactly what it was — a journey of faith, pain and strength.”
Harris later founded the nonprofit Journi for Two to support other pregnant women and mothers facing cancer. She also trained as a nurse and now works in the oncology unit at the same hospital where she received treatment, inspired by the caregivers who helped her.
“The nurses who cared for me became my family during that time,” she wrote. “They didn’t just treat my cancer, they treated my spirit.” She has encouraged others in similar situations that “it’s possible to keep fighting and still hold onto hope,” and advised, “Always have faith and believe that everything happens for a reason even if you may not see that reason at the moment.”
