Doctor reveals the pain and futility of US anti-abortion laws. 

A doctor has penned a stirring account of having to refuse a termination of pregnancy to a woman carrying a foetus with no brain, citing US anti-abortion laws.

Writing in Annals of Internal Medicine, published by the American College of Physicians, the doctor describes the woman pleading with “her eyes” to “end it”, but being unable to comply because of strict state laws.

“You talk to the obstetricians … But nobody will do it. Not in this state. Not in this hospital. And so, the mother goes home, pregnant and grieving,” writes the doctor, who remains anonymous.

Within a few days the woman returned in premature labour and the baby was delivered, but died shortly afterwards.

“The baby is born with no skull, eyes like gumballs too big for their sockets. Alive, briefly. It hurts to look. Grotesque is all you can think, but you cannot say it,” the doctor writes.

Read the full article in Cosmos magazine here