Tennessee woman denies abortion of fetus that would be ‘born dead and without skull bones’

A Tennessee woman has expressed outrage that she was denied an abortion despite her fetus suffering from a fatal condition that would cause the baby to be born dead and without part of its skull.

Breanna Cecil, 34, ultimately lost an ovary, fallopian tube and her dreams of a large family due to delayed treatment due to strict anti-abortion laws – which deny abortion if the fetus still has a heartbeat.

The mother’s fetus was diagnosed in January 2023 with acrania, a fatal condition in which the developing baby has no skull bones.

“The state of Tennessee took my fertility away from me,” said Ms. Cecil, a dietitian.

Tennessee’s near-total abortion ban prevents anyone from having an abortion if the fetus still has a heartbeat, which is what Ms. Cecil did

State lawmakers “took away my opportunity to have a family like my own biological family because of these horrible laws they put in place,” she shared The independent.

At the time of her first ultrasound, twelve weeks into her pregnancy, doctors told her that the fetus was not viable outside the womb.

She asked the doctor what to do, and he didn’t know how to answer her question, she recalled.

Anencephaly is the absence of the upper part of the brain of the fetus, which is believed to be due to acrania

Her choices were limited because Tennessee’s near-total ban prevents anyone from having an abortion if the fetus still has a heartbeat, as Ms. Cecil’s did.

The law had no exceptions for fatal conditions such as acrania, and doctors who perform abortions outside the permitted exceptions could face prison sentences.

She had another ultrasound, which she said was heartbreaking because the severity of the baby’s condition was clear.

“I could see the brain wasn’t attached,” Mrs. Cecil said.

Doctors told her that if she continued with the pregnancy, the child would “most likely die inside me within 20 weeks” and she would have to give birth to a stillborn child.

Mrs. Cecil started showing a lump and was crushed by well-intentioned questions about the baby’s due date and gender. She decided to have an abortion out of state.

To get an appointment, I had to “sob at the receptionists” in about twenty clinics and hospitals, but she finally found it in Chicago and had an abortion on February 3.

But just six days after returning to Tennessee, she developed a fever and back pain.

Antibiotics didn’t help, so she had another ultrasound.

The doctor found residual fetal tissue in her, which can have serious consequences such as bleeding and infection.

Ms. Cecil underwent another procedure to remove the remaining tissue.

But when her fever didn’t subside, she went back to the hospital, where doctors discovered she had a nine-centimeter abscess in her abdomen that included some of her reproductive organs.

She had to undergo emergency surgery to remove her right ovary and fallopian tube and had to stay in hospital for ten difficult days.

Mrs Cecil and her husband were devastated after trying to conceive for almost a year.

Since her emergency surgery, they have not been able to become pregnant.