International- A Baton Rouge woman said she was denied an abortion after the fetus was diagnosed with a rare condition.
- Nancy Davis said the fetus was diagnosed with acrania, in which a fetus' skull partially or fully fails to form.
A Louisiana mother said she was denied an abortion after her baby was diagnosed with a rare condition that it likely won't survive, local news outlet WAFB reported Tuesday.
Nancy Davis, who is pregnant with her second child, told the local outlet that she got her first ultrasound at the 10-week mark of her pregnancy at the Women's Hospital in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, when medical staff noticed something unusual.
"It was an abnormal ultrasound, and they noticed the top of the baby's head was missing and the skull was missing, the top of the skull was missing," Davis told WAFB.
Davis' baby was diagnosed with acrania, a rare and fatal congenital disorder in which a fetus' skull partially or completely fails to form, according to the Fetal Medicine Foundation. The prognosis of the disorder is "extremely poor with documented mortality of almost 100%," according to the International Journal of Reproduction, Contraception, Obstetrics, and Gynecology.
After the fall of the 1973 landmark ruling Roe v. Wade, which protected a women's right to an abortion, Louisiana was among a number of conservative states that issued a complete ban on abortions in the state, save for situations in which the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy or if the fetus has a certain condition.
However, given that Davis' life is not in danger from the pregnancy and acrania does not fall under the Louisiana Department of Health's list of qualifying conditions for an abortion, the Louisiana mother said she was denied an abortion.
"It's hard knowing that ... you know, I'm carrying it to bury it," she told WAFB.
Davis, who is now 13 weeks along in her pregnancy, told the outlet that she is faced with the decision of carrying the fetus to term — just for it to survive within minutes of her pregnancy — or crossing state lines to get an abortion.
"Florida is the closest...so ideally Florida. But then the next closest place would be North Carolina or something," Davis said. Florida permits abortions up until the 15th week of pregnancy, and North Carolina up to the 20th week.
The Louisiana mother said she hopes her case will prompt state lawmakers in Louisiana to consider expanding their list of fetal conditions for an abortion to prevent future cases similar to hers.
"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," Davis told WAFB.
Representatives from the Women's Hospital did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.