Woman Carrying Fetus With Fatal Condition Is Denied Abortion Due to Louisiana Ban

A Louisiana mother said she was denied an abortion even though doctors told her that her baby had a rare birth defect and would not survive.

Nancy Davis said she found out 10 weeks into her pregnancy that her unborn child had a condition called Acrania, where the fetus' skull does not form inside the womb. The Fetal Medicine Foundation said a baby born with this "lethal condition" does not survive past the first week. Davis' doctors advised that she get an abortion, but lamented they could not perform one because of the state's ban on abortions, she said at a news conference Friday.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Davis, slammed state legislators and said the ban puts his client at risk.

"Thanks to the actions of the Louisiana legislator, Ms. Davis was left without medical care to do what doctors said needed to be done, end the pregnancy. By imposing themselves between Ms. Davis and her doctors, Louisiana lawmakers inflicted unspeakable pain, emotional damage, and physical risk upon this beautiful mother," he said. "They replaced care with confusion. Privacy with politics. Options with ideology.”