Mom refuses abortion after brain cancer diagnosis

A young mother in Michigan refused abortion following a diagnosis of brain cancer in 2022 and gave birth to a baby girl, Gracey. Now she is in a battle for her own life.

Tasha Kann, a 30-year-old nurse, was expecting her second child when she was diagnosed with Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade III, a rare brain tumor considered to be more aggressive with a higher pace of growth. According to a GoFundMe page created for Kann and her family, she was told that her best chance of survival would include aborting her daughter in order to begin radiation and chemotherapy immediately. Following research and prayer, Kann rejected abortion and began natural treatments, refusing chemo and radiation. She was 20 weeks pregnant at the time.

“I was going to keep her and fight and go home and fight it,” she told 9 and 10 News.

Kann gave birth to her daughter eight months ago. Her oncologist discovered more cancer that regular scans had missed and her prognosis was severely shortened from years to months. Doctors now say that radiation and chemo won’t work and updated the diagnosis to Gliomatosis Cerebri, which Cancer.gov describes as the name for “a diffuse pattern of glioma cells with extensive growth invading multiple lobes of the brain.”

“There’s a spot of cancer in my central nervous system where the cancer is coming from. They’re actually surprised to see that I’m walking and talking and living a normal life,” said Kann. “My prognosis isn’t good, so they don’t even want to try. I’m not giving up. I won’t.”

She was told by her new doctor that radiation was never an option for her and the doctor is not sure why she was ever given that option at all. Kann is undergoing alternative treatments at the Burzynski Clinic in Texas, which costs about $17,000 a month. None of it is covered by insurance. The family has already spent their retirement money and is hoping to raise $200,000 through the GoFundMe page to cover a full year of treatments.

“She’s already beat the prognosis time. It was June 6 of ‘22, and we’ve passed that. And, you know, every day past that is her proving somebody wrong,” said her husband Taylor.

As a hospice nurse, she said she knows the odds are against her but she wants to see her babies grow up. Kann explained, “It’s scary, but I don’t really listen to them. How do they know? They told me I shouldn’t be walking or talking and living normal. And I am, so. …”

According to the GoFundMe page, the alternative treatments have “kept her strong, and healthy and have kept the cancer from growing/ spreading or forming additional tumors.”