HOUSTON — "I just personally feel like it's a choice, and everyone should have control over their body, and I don't."
In the beginning, Samantha asked us to conceal her face as she shared the story of her pregnancy.
"I'm trying to keep it together right now. It's hard. It's very hard," Samantha said.
Twenty weeks into her pregnancy, she was getting an ultrasound when she was told only part of her baby’s brain and skull were forming.
"'Your daughter has something called anencephaly,'" she said doctors told her. "'She's going to pass away shortly after birth, and there's nothing that can heal her or fix her. There is no surgery that can fix her.'"
"I officially found out that my daughter had anencephaly," Samantha said. "I asked her, ‘What are my options?’ and she said, ‘Well, because of the law, you don't have any options, really. You're pregnant, you have to go through your pregnancy.'"
Samantha said the new Texas law that makes performing an abortion in Texas a felony unless the mother’s life is in danger kept her from being able to terminate her pregnancy. She said she was forced to carry her baby to full term -- knowing the child won’t survive.
“I have to feel her kick," Samantha said. “A lot of people can just go out and be like, 'Oh, let me go out to Arizona and get my abortion. Or New Mexico.' Um, that wasn't there for me. Like, I'm stuck here. I'm carrying my daughter just to bury her, like, that thought is just rolling in my head over and over and over again."
Samantha was 32 weeks pregnant when we first spoke with her. But on Thursday, she came out of the shadows and is no longer hiding her identity. She and her husband, Luis Villasana, were putting fresh flowers on their baby girl's grave when KHOU 11 News met with them again.
“We should change them," Samantha told Luis.
A 12-hour delivery brought Halo Hope into the world on March 29.
“When she came, she was missing her skull ... so her eyes were super, like, poofy. And then she was gasping for air. As soon as we saw her, she gasped for air," Samantha said. “When they gave her back to me, they had her wrapped up in her blanket. And then she was just gasping for air.”
Trying to breathe in a world in which she lived for only four hours.
“And I felt so bad. And I just wanted to tell her that I was so sorry that this had to happen to her, that there was nothing I could do to help her," Samantha said. “And that is a horrible feeling as a parent to not be able to help your baby.”
It wasn't a happy ending for Halo or for her family.
“It hurts more because I can’t do anything for her. Like what could I do?” Luis said.
They believe their daughter’s fate was sealed in the womb. And now that she’s found peace, they’re giving her a purpose.
“Halo's purpose is to change the law," Samantha said.
They hope Halo can shine light and change minds.
“Halo's here. You guys wanted Halo here, and now Halo’s here. And Halo is going to have a voice," Samantha said.
Samantha has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for her daughter's funeral costs.