Louisiana woman denied abortion wants 'vague' ban clarified

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A pregnant Louisiana woman who was denied an abortion — even though her fetus has a rare and fatal condition — demanded on Friday that Gov. John Bel Edwards and the legislature call a special session to clarify the state's restrictions on the procedure.

Nancy Davis, who is 15 weeks pregnant, said she will travel out of state next week for a “medically necessary” abortion. A state law currently in effect 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, 36, and abortion-rights advocates for months have criticized the legislation as vague and confusing.

Their concerns are being echoed in numerous other states that, like Louisiana, passed so-called trigger laws when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion. Roughly a dozen states currently ban abortions at all stages of pregnancy, with some allowing for narrow exceptions such as in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger.

"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," Ben Crump, an attorney for Davis, said during a news conference held on the state's Capitol steps Friday.

Ten weeks into Davis' pregnancy, doctors at Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge diagnosed the fetus she is carrying with acrania, a rare and fatal condition in which the baby’s skull fails to form in the womb. 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...