Who is Nancy Davis? Mom denied abortion even though ultrasound reveals baby won't survive
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA: Nancy Davis, a 13 weeks pregnant mother was denied abortion in her home state despite the fact that her unborn child won't survive. Davis found out about her unborn child's condition at her first ultrasound three weeks ago. The ultrasound revealed that her unborn child has acrania, a terminal condition in which the infant’s skull does not develop in utero. Children born with the condition typically die minutes or hours after birth.
“It was an abnormal ultrasound, and they noticed the top of the baby’s head was missing and the skull was missing,” Davis told WAFB-TV. However, because the pregnancy poses no danger to Davis's life and acrania is not one of the qualifying conditions for abortion, she was denied the right to terminate her pregnancy in her home state Louisiana. Davis is now debating whether to carry the pregnancy to term or to travel to Florida or North Carolina for an abortion. She must make a decision quickly because nearby states limit abortion eligibility to 15 weeks.
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“It’s a baby that’s not going to be compatible with life,” said the Louisiana mom. “These babies either die stillborn or they die a couple minutes later.” “It’s hard knowing that, you know, I’m carrying it to bury it,” she continued. Although Davis did not take a strong stand on abortion rights, she did say that Louisiana lawmakers should consider widening the list of conditions that qualify for an abortion.
“I just want them to consider special circumstances as it relates to abortion … medical problems, like this, is one that needs to be in that,” she told the news outlet. Davis also stated that she would be willing to appear before the state legislature in order to advocate for the issue further. Davis' difficult situation is likely to become more common in Louisiana, where the state's "trigger law" resulted in a near-total abortion ban in July.
According to Davis, only 24 conditions are on the list of "congenital disorders and chromosomal abnormalities" that allow for the procedure. It's unclear why acrania — a "uniformly dismal" diagnosis according to Carnegie Imaging — isn't on this list. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the "trigger law" last Friday, August 9, subjecting abortion providers to felony charges punishable by up to a decade in prison and a $100,000 fine. There are no exceptions to the law for rape or incest.
Following the court's decision last week, the state's last three abortion clinics will relocate, leaving the state without available providers for the first time since 1974. Kathleen Pittman, administrator at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, told local public radio station WWNO that the new law was "devastating, when I think of the women who are now going to be denied care.”
Pittman said employees are rushing to help women find care elsewhere because the ban makes it "impossible" for clinics to operate in the state. Pittman said employees are rushing to help women find care elsewhere because the ban makes it "impossible" for clinics to operate in the state.