Gilda Restelli was nearly 30 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered that her fetus had only fragments of a skull and almost no brain. Medical experts told Gilda and her husband that their baby had almost no chance of survival after birth. She quit her job, not because she was physically incapacitated, but because she could no longer bear the hearty congratulations of strangers who were unaware of the tragic circumstances surrounding her pregnancy. The Restellis made the agonizing decision to end the pregnancy, and even though state law included a health exception, the couple had to battle.
