Oconomowoc couple advocates for revised abortion law after forced to deliver stillborn son in Minnesota

OCONOMOWOC, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Ashley and Brian Nold were excited to grow their family upon learning they were expecting a little boy due at the end of the summer.

"He loved when music was playing and he liked to keep me up at night," Ashley Nold said.

Their whole world flipped upside down at Nold's 20-week check-up.

"He had all ten fingers, all ten toes. Everything was perfect, and then (the doctor) moved up the spinal cord from there and that's when his jaw dropped, and he saw everything," Nold said.

The ultrasound showed their son's body was growing without parts of his brain and skull-- a rare, fatal condition called anencephaly.

Doctors also diagnosed Nold with a low-lying placenta, making her more susceptible to life-threatening complications.

"It made it so much harder because you're already losing your child and then they say it could put her at risk also," Brian Nold said.

Ashley Nold said the doctors recommended she deliver as soon as possible, but they couldn't be the ones to help her through it.

"We were told that we would need to go to either Illinois or Minnesota to have Rowan," Nold said.

Wisconsin's 1849 abortion law prohibits doctors from delivering babies from the time of conception until they are born alive, unless the mother's life in danger.

Nold said her doctors described danger as sepsis.

"I wouldn't want anybody in this entire world to have to go through this," Nold said.

Instead of staying home and working with her own doctor, Nold traveled five hours away from home with her family.

Their son, Rowan Nold, was still born on April 16.

"He was so, so loved. He's still loved," Nold said.

Now, the Nolds are asking lawmakers to separate medical cases like theirs from the current law.

"Like abortion and this situation should be completely separate," Nold said. "There was just way much more that we had to go through than we should have had to go through because of Wisconsin's laws."

Their hope is babies like Rowan, whether living or passed at birth, can be delivered close to home.

"I just wish hopefully in the near future we can have that here," Nold said.

Nold is hoping to start a support group for other mothers and families going through a similar loss.