Nancy Davis and Shedric Cole on being denied abortion care in Louisiana
In the summer of 2022, Nancy Davis and her partner, Shedric Cole, were overjoyed to find out that Nancy was pregnant. Then, at a routine prenatal visit in their home state of Louisiana, everything changed.
“I was doing great up until I went to my appointment,” Nancy remembered, “when the doctor told me that our baby was diagnosed with acrania. Most of the brain was missing, and the skull was missing. He also told us that these babies just don’t survive, and he recommended us to terminate the pregnancy for my safety and well-being.”
“Our situation was a month after Roe v. Wade was overturned,” Shedric recalled. “So it was still so many uncertainties about the laws and about what doctors were able to do.”
Because of Louisiana’s abortion ban, Nancy was forced to travel hundreds of miles to New York City to get the care she needed. Two years later, she and Shedric discussed the heartbreak of being denied essential health care, Nancy’s advocacy on behalf of other women in Louisiana and states with abortion bans, and the joy of welcoming their newborn, Starr.
Nancy and Shedric’s conversation was recorded by StoryCorps Studios, part of Abortion in America’s collection of interviews with people in Louisiana about the ways in which the state’s abortion ban has affected their lives.
It felt like a slap in our face. I felt like I was just an object, like I didn’t have control over my own body.
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