{"id":276266,"date":"2022-09-20T14:30:56","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T19:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=276266"},"modified":"2024-09-20T16:24:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T21:24:23","slug":"nancy-davis-new-york-forced-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/nancy-davis-new-york-forced-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Media said woman was ‘forced’ to travel to NY for an abortion. Here’s why that’s untrue."},"content":{"rendered":"
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For weeks, the story of a woman “forced<\/a>” to travel thousands of miles from Louisiana to New York for an abortion has flooded the media with sensationalized headlines. New details and an examination of pro-life laws reveal that this was not the case. Instead, the abortion industry and pro-abortion media used her tragic story and exploited a family’s heartbreak to gain support for abortion on demand.<\/p>\n

Nancy Davis went public with her painful story<\/a> in August. She had learned at 10 weeks that her preborn child had acrania, a life-limiting condition in which the baby’s skull does not develop, leaving his or her brain exposed to amniotic fluid. Davis said doctors recommended she undergo an abortion, but that they were unable to commit the abortion because of Louisiana’s pro-life law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctors told me that my baby would die shortly after birth,” she said. “They told me that I should terminate the pregnancy. Because of the state of Louisiana\u2019s abortion ban they cannot perform the procedure. Basically, they said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The media frenzy and misinformation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Davis shared her story hoping that pro-life legislators would take cases like hers into consideration. \u201cI just want them to consider special circumstances as it relates to abortion. Medical problems like this is one that needs to be in that,\u201d she told local KKTV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her story spread like wildfire<\/a>\u00a0across major media outlets\u00a0and ultimately brought Davis to California to the Dr. Phil show<\/a>, alongside Live Action founder and president Lila Rose. Also on the show was Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Davis and her partner, Shedric, and Louisiana State Senator Katrina Jackson (D) who authored Louisiana’s pro-life law.<\/p>\n

\u201cLouisiana was one of the first states to institute draconian laws that said no matter what that situation is, a woman cannot choose to get an abortion even if the doctors told her that there was 99.9% chance that her baby would die in minutes after it came through her womb,” Crump said. “And I understand, Dr. Phil, you\u2019re a mental health expert. I cannot imagine the mental anguish of a woman that has to deliver a baby that she sees come out of her and then they pronounce it dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Crump is wrong on several levels. First, contrary to his personal thoughts and assumptions on the matter, women who carry their preborn children to term after receiving such a diagnosis have better<\/em> mental health outcomes than those who have an abortion, according to multiple<\/a><\/em> studies<\/a>. Research has found<\/a> that women who have an abortion following a traumatic prenatal diagnosis are at higher risk<\/a> for post-traumatic stress disorder and emotional anguish than women who carry to term after such a diagnosis.<\/p>\n

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