‘They said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby’: Louisiana woman blasts state’s anti-abortion law
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A Louisiana woman has shared her fury after her state’s abortion law denied her a termination despite her fetus developing without a skull – a condition that means it will not survive
Nancy Davis, who is 15 weeks pregnant, said she will travel out of state next week for a ‘medically necessary’ abortion because the fetus she is carrying suffers from acrania, a fetal abnormality that is fatal.
The law forbidding Davis bans all abortions except if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the woman if she continues her pregnancy and in the case of ‘medically futile’ pregnancies
Davis was told that if she brought the pregnancy to full term and gave birth, the baby would likely survive for a very short amount of time – anywhere from several minutes to a week.
She doesn’t want to go through the trauma of that labor – and blasted the woolly language of her state’s abortion bill for making her suffer.
‘Basically, they said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby,’ Davis said. ‘They seemed confused about the law and afraid of what would happen to them.’
Nancy Davis of Louisiana appeared with her attorney Ben Crump to speak about being banned from having an abortion in her state and traveling to another state to get one
An ultrasound of Davis’ fetus revealed a case of Acrania, a fatal fetal condition that is characterized by the baby being born without a formed skill
‘Louisiana lawmakers inflicted unspeakable pain, emotional damage and physical risk upon this beautiful mother,’ Crump said about Davis
She says the law is purposefully vague and confusing and has criticized the way it has been applied to her for months alongside her attorney, Ben Crump.
‘Ms. Davis was among the first women to be caught in the crosshairs of confusion due to Louisiana’s rush to restrict abortion, but she will hardly be the last,’ said Crump on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol building on Friday.
Physicians advised Davis to get an abortion, but said they could not perform the procedure because a doctor performing an illegal abortion in Louisiana could face up to 15 years in prison.
‘Louisiana lawmakers inflicted unspeakable pain, emotional damage and physical risk upon this beautiful mother,’ Crump said about Davis.
In a statement last week to news outlets, spokesperson Caroline Isemann said Woman’s Hospital was not able to comment on a specific patient, but reiterated that it is the hospital’s mission to provide the ‘best possible care for women’ while complying with state laws and policies.
Since then, the law’s author, Sen. Katrina Jackson, and other legislators have said that Davis qualifies for an abortion and that the hospital ‘grossly misinterpreted’ the statute.
Jackson herself wrote Louisiana’s existing abortion laws.
Yet in a written statement Tuesday signed by Jackson and 35 others, including nine other women, they indicated that many of them share a religious faith that would ‘compel us to carry this child to term.’ That saw them accused of gaslighting.
Davis has been speaking for months about her case and criticizing the laws that she says are vague and incoherent
Davis has called on lawmakers and Governor John Bel Edwards, pictured, to hold a special session to clarify the law affecting her case
Davis and her attorneys said they don’t blame the doctors, but the vagueness of the law.
‘The law is clear as mud,’ Crump said. ‘Every women´s situation is different and subject to interpretation, so of course medical professionals don´t want to risk prison or to have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines for making the wrong call. Who would just take somebody´s word for it when their liberty is in jeopardy?’
A lawsuit filed by an abortion clinic in Shreveport and others has been in process since the new law took effect. The legislation has by turns been blocked and then enforced as the suit makes its way through the courts.
The most recent ruling allowed enforcement of the law. Plaintiffs challenging the ban don’t deny the state can now prohibit abortions; they argue that the law´s provisions are contradictory and unconstitutionally vague.
While Davis has not filed a complaint or lawsuit, she wants Louisiana legislators and Governor John Bel Edwards to hold a special session to clarify the law, and their next regular session is scheduled for April 2023.
‘Imagine how many women may be affected before (lawmakers) come back into session,’ Crump said. ‘How many more Nancy Davises will have to endure the mental anguish and mental cruelty before the legislators clear up these vague and ambiguous laws.’
Florida Judge Jennifer Frydrychowicz ruled a 16-year-old girl could not have an abortion as she did not provide ‘clear and convincing evidence that she was sufficiently mature to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy’
Republican appointed-Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett all voted to strike down Roe along with Samuel Alito
The overturning of Roe v. Wade means states have more autonomy to decide whether women have the right to an abortion, and it is becoming increasingly difficult in some states to get one.
Recently, a court in Florida ruled that a 16-year-old orphaned girl cannot have an abortion because she is ‘not mature enough’ to make the decision.
The teenage girl, who does not have any parents, is now appealing the decision after she was barred from terminating her pregnancy following a judge’s ruling.
Despite the teenage girl petitioning that she was ‘not ready to have a baby,’ the court ruled that she also was not mature enough to decide to abort the unborn child.
The minor submitted her petition to the court, which she constructed by hand, and insisted ‘she is sufficiently mature to make the decision, saying she ‘is not ready to have a baby,’ she doesn’t have a job, she is ‘still in school,’ and the father is unable to assist her.’
Some 55 percent of voters now say access to abortions is ‘very important’ to how they will vote in November, according to polling by KFF, a health policy group, higher than in previous surveys.
Drew Altman, KFF’s president and CEO, said abortion access would ‘make a difference’ in November by ‘motivating a lot of younger women to vote, and most Democrats, half of independents and even some Republicans’.
Roe v. Wade: The landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in America
In 1973, the United States Supreme Court recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. The landmark ruling legalized abortion nationwide but divided public opinion and has been under attack ever since.
The case was filed in 1971 by Norma McCorvey, a 22-year-old living in Texas, who was unmarried and seeking a termination of her unwanted pregnancy.
Because of state legislation preventing abortions unless the mother’s life was at risk, she was unable to undergo the procedure in a safe and legal environment.
So McCorvey sued Henry Wade, the Dallas county district attorney, in 1970. The case went on to the Supreme Court, under the filing Roe v. Wade, to protect McCorvey’s privacy.
Supreme Court Decision
The Supreme Court handed down the watershed 7-2 decision that a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th Amendment.
In particular, that the Due Process Clause of the the 14th Amendment provides a fundamental ‘right to privacy’ that protects a woman’s liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion.
…nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law
The landmark ruling saw abortions decriminalized in 46 states, but under certain conditions which individual states could decide. For example, states could decide whether abortions were allowed only during the first and second trimester but not the third (typically beyond 28 weeks).
Impact
Among pro-choice campaigners, the decision was hailed as a victory which would mean fewer women would become seriously – or even fatally – ill from abortions carried out by unqualified or unlicensed practitioners. Moreover, the freedom of choice was considered a significant step in the equality fight for women in the country. Victims of rape or incest would be able to have the pregnancy terminated and not feel coerced into motherhood.
Pro-lifers contended it was tantamount to murder and that every life, no matter how it was conceived, is precious. Though the decision has never been overturned, anti-abortionists have prompted hundreds of states laws since then narrowing the scope of the ruling.
One such was the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2003, which banned a procedure used to perform second-trimester abortions.
McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s, when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe
Norma McCorvey (Jane Roe)
Following the ruling, McCorvey lived a quiet life until the 1980s, when she revealed herself to be Jane Roe. McCorvey became a leading, outspoken pro-abortion voice in American discourse, even working at a women’s clinic where abortions were performed.
She performed an unlikely U-turn in 1995, becoming a born again Christian and began traveling the country speaking out against the procedure.
In 2003, she filed a motion to overturn her original 1973 ruling with the US district court in Dallas. The motion moved through the courts until it was ultimately denied by the Supreme Court in 2005.
McCorvey died at an assisted living home in Texas in February 2017, aged 69.
‘The Heartbeat bill’
Multiple governors have signed legislation outlawing abortion if a doctor can detect a so-called ‘fetal heartbeat,’ part of a concerted effort to restrict abortion rights in states across the country.
Under the ban, doctors will be prosecuted for flouting the rules.
Abortion-rights supporters see the ‘heartbeat bills’ as virtual bans because ‘fetal heartbeats’ can be detected as early as six weeks, when women may not even be aware they’re pregnant.
Anti-abortion campaigners have intensified their efforts since former President Donald Trump appointed two conservative justices to the US Supreme Court, hopeful they can convince the right-leaning court to re-examine Roe v. Wade.
Georgia, Ohio, Missouri and Louisiana have enacted ‘heartbeat laws’ recently, and Alabama passed an even more restrictive version in May, amounting to a near-total ban on abortion from the moment of conception. Other states have similar legislation pending.
Similar laws has also been passed in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, Iowa and Kentucky, though they have been blocked by courts from going into effect as legal challenges have been brought against them.