LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Just before Christmas, Alexis Smith and her fiance, Morgan Goodin, learned they were expecting a child.
"We were really excited," Smith said Thursday. "We told our family on Christmas."
In March, they found out it was a baby boy. They picked a name, Walker Allen, sharing a middle name with Smith's father.
Just before Christmas, Alexis Smith and her fiance, Morgan Goodin, learned they were expecting a child.
But at 19 weeks, the doctor told Smith and Goodin their baby had a fatal birth defect called anencephaly, which causes babies to be born without parts of the brain and skull. If a baby with anencephaly is born alive, they usually live just a few hours or days.
You can even see it on the ultrasound images, little Walker Allen without the typical definition of a round skull.
"I was really mad at first," Smith said. "I was like, 'Why me?'"
Smith wanted to be induced early so she could hold Walker before she had to say goodbye. She didn't want to prolong her pain by carrying him to term.
"I didn't want to go through labor and all that and not take a baby home," she said.
But since the baby still had a heartbeat, that would be illegal under Kentucky abortion law, a near-total trigger law ban and a separate six-week ban both passed by the state legislature in 2019 that took effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.
"I wish I would've had the option to do it here and with the doctors I trusted," Smith said.
At 21 weeks pregnant, Smith and Goodin traveled to Maryland to be induced. They payed $7,500 out of pocket for the termination alone, a procedure Smith said would've been covered by her insurance had it been legal in Kentucky.
At 21 weeks pregnant, Alexis Smith traveled to Maryland to be induced. Her baby boy, Walker, died.
"Nobody should have to travel that far to get health care," she said.
Republican state Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office has steadfastly defended the bans. Since the state's near-complete abortion ban took effect, abortion-rights groups said they have helped Kentuckians "get the care they need, including helping patients find care out of state."
Kentucky law bans abortions except when they're carried out to save the life of the mother or to prevent disabling injury. It does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Some Republican legislators recognize the current law poses issues.
Rep. Jason Nemes, a Republican who represents District 33, has previously proposed a change to state law, which would allow a woman to get an abortion in Kentucky if two doctors say the baby wouldn't survive outside of the womb. But his amendments to bills have failed.
Nemes, who said he's pro-life, said he will try to get the law changed again in Kentucky's next legislative session, aiming to include exceptions for victims of rape and incest.
Smith, a nursing student, withdrew from school just months before her planned graduation in June.
"I had no choice," she said.
On Mother's Day, Smith went to get a tattoo of Walker's footprints and his birth date. Now, that's the only thing keeping her baby boy with her.
"People don't understand unless they're put in this situation," she said.
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