Thank you to our elected Democratic women for making the abortion debate personal.
Women lawmakers share stories about rape, difficult pregnancies in Wisconsin ultrasound bill debate
Judith Davidoff on Friday 06/14/2013 10:11 am
This was no ordinary debate in the Wisconsin Legislature.
Rep. Mandy Wright (D-Wausau) shared publicly for the first time that she had been raped when she was 8. Rep. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) talked openly for the first time about the anguish she felt when told 17 years ago that one of the twins she was carrying had died in utero and that she had to make a choice to "save the life" of her other son. And Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) told the story of how, when 18 weeks pregnant with her second child, she ended up in the emergency room, where she was told the fetal heartbeat could not be detected. Then she was sent for an ultrasound.
"I remember crying hysterically and wondering what I was going to see on that ultrasound," Taylor said during debate Thursday over a bill that would require women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound. It turned out to be a false alarm for Taylor, but she said the situation would have been much worse had there been problems and had she been forced to view another ultrasound before getting an abortion.
"I cannot imagine going through that, finding out something was wrong, and [having to have another ultrasound] to terminate a pregnancy. You have no idea what you're doing to women. Please have some empathy and compassion for women." But these stories failed to sway Republican lawmakers, who rejected each of the 13 amendments offered by Democratic legislators and eventually approved the measure 56-39.
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A tearful Rep. Sondy Pope (D-Cross Plains), who has one child, shared how she went through five pregnancies in all. During her second pregnancy she was told by her doctor that the baby would not be born alive. "He said, 'I can admit you or you can wait until nature takes its course.'" Pope said she and her husband chose to have an abortion even though it was a child they wanted desperately. "These are not choices we like," she said. But they are ones that should not be dictated by politicians, she added. "I'm just appalled that you feel your morals [get] to play out in my life," said Pope in remarks meant for bill supporters. "Some decisions don't belong to you."
http://www.isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=40173
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