A pregnant woman in Louisiana has revealed she was left with no choice but “to carry my baby to bury my baby” after being denied an abortion for a foetus that has no skull and no chance of survival.
Nancy Davis, a mother-of-three who was planning to have a fourth child, spoke out in a gut-wrenching press conference on Friday where she said she hopes no other women have to go through what she has experienced.
Six weeks ago, Ms Davis received devastating news at 10 weeks of pregnancy that the foetus growing inside her womb has acrania.
Acrania is a rare and fatal condition where the foetus’ skull does not form inside the womb, leading to the brain being destroyed.
If such a pregnancy is carried to term, the baby would die within its first week of life, according to the Fetal Medicine Foundation.
But, despite the lethal diagnosis, Ms Davis said she was denied an abortion in Louisiana because of confusion around the anti-abortion law introduced by her home state in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v Wade.
Clutching her one-year-old daughter on the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge on Friday, Ms Davis said that doctors in Louisiana told her that she needed to have an abortion but that their hands were tied.
“The doctors told me that my baby would die shortly after birth,” she said, flanked by her partner Chedrick Cole and attorney Ben Crump.
“They told me that I should terminate the pregnancy. Because of the state of Louisiana’s abortion ban they cannot perform the procedure.”
She said that doctors told her that – under state law – she would have to carry the baby to term.
“Basically, they said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby,” she said.
“They seemed confused about the law and afraid of what would happen to them if they perform a criminal abortion, according to the law.”
Ms Davis spoke out of the toll it has taken on her as she was left to carry her unviable pregnancy for another six weeks while she tried to raise the money to travel out of state for the procedure.
Now, at 16 weeks pregnant, she plans to travel around 1,000 miles to North Carolina where abortion is still legal to have an abortion.
“I want you to imagine what it’s been like to continue this pregnancy for another six weeks after this diagnosis,” she said.
“This is not fair to me and it should not happen to any other woman.”
Prominent civil rights attorney Mr Crump, who is representing Ms Davis, condemned the “risks and emotional tolls” the situation has taken on her while she was forced to continue with the pregnancy.
“Davis and her family are very grateful to all of those who donated to her to be able to arrange for travel,” he said.
“By the time Ms Davis has the procedure she needs next week, she would have carried this unsustainable pregnancy for an additional month and a half.”
Mr Crump condemned state lawmakers for inflicting “unspeakable pain, emotional damage and physical risk” on Ms Davis and other Louisianans because of their “vague and confusing” abortion laws which he blasted as “clear as mud”.
He urged the state legislature to hold a special session to tackle the “public health catastrophe” as he warned that other women will also find themselves in similar plights due to confusion over the state law.
“Ms Davis was among the first women to be caught in this crosshairs of confusion due to Louisiana’s rush to restrict abortion. But she will hardly be the last,” he said.
Since Ms Davis’s case came to light, state senator Katrina Jackson, who authored the state’s ban, has claimed that her pregnancy would have fallen under an exception of the law and that doctors should have given her an abortion.
But, Ms Davis is just the latest in a growing number of women who are being forced to carry unviable and sometimes dangerous pregnancies, as medical professionals try to navigate the confusion of the post-Roe world and seek to avoid jail time for violating sudden bans and unclear laws.
Back on 24 June, the conservative-heavy US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade ruling, which had cemented abortion as a constitutional right of the American people for half a century.
Since then, Republican-led states have rushed to tighten restrictions and introduce all-out abortion bans, stripping women and pregnant people across America of their reproductive rights.
Louisiana is now one of 12 states where abortion is banned, with no exception for rape or incest.
Some exceptions are made for fatal medical conditions but arcania is not explicitly mentioned on that list.
Meanwhile, the ban has already driven abortion providers out of the state, with the last remaining clinics in Louisiana shuttering earlier this month.
