Abortion Story

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. LEE of Nevada. Madam Speaker, in the wake of the Supreme Court's destructive decision overturning Roe v. Wade, women across this country have shared their stories. From Facebook to the dinner table to streets in protest, women have shared the details of the deeply personal and often difficult moments in which they exercised their right to choose.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to share the story of a constituent of mine named Misty.

His name was Miles. I knew something was wrong at 12 to 16 weeks. At 20 weeks, it was too late. I spent a terrible night in the ER hemorrhaging. Miles survived that incident and there was still a heartbeat. The next day was traumatic at an ultrasound.

I had lost so much fluid and Miles was being smashed. They said that he wasn't getting the blood he needed to his kidneys and other places. They literally sent me home to wait for him to die. There was still a heartbeat at 20 weeks, but I was informed that Miles could not live to full term and that I would have to deliver conventionally if I had made it to 24 weeks.

The news continued to get worse, and I waited. That was the longest week of my life. I waited through fear, depression, anxiety, and immense sadness. At the end of that week, I decided, with my fetal medicine specialist, to terminate the pregnancy. It was one of the toughest decisions I have ever faced.

The trauma that I would have experienced by delivering a dead baby, Miles, would have been more than I could handle. Going to the doctor every other day and seeing him dying was enough to make me realize this.

Misty closes by saying: We are not careless, immoral, or monsters.

Madam Speaker, I stand with Misty, and I stand with her right to make her decision. The trauma and pain that women like Misty face in these moments should be met with care, compassion, and the right to privacy.

But instead, my colleagues on the right would rather inflict more trauma during what can be an extremely challenging moment in a woman's life: forcing them to cross State lines to access abortion; forcing them to give birth when it threatens their health, their mental health, and their financial well-being; forcing them to defend miscarriages in front of a court of law; forcing young girls to carry a pregnancy to term that is the result of a sexual assault or rape.

We cannot become complicit in the destructiveness of these extreme policies. Behind each pro-life policy are the very real and very personal stories of women whose lives will be forever turned upside down. I thank Misty for her story, but she shouldn't have to share it.

For 50 years, the law of the land respected individual choice and privacy. In Nevada, our law still reflects that today, but tomorrow may look different.

National Republicans stand ready to ban and restrict abortion nationwide, even in States like Nevada where the right to choose is protected by law. Just last week, on this very same House floor, they lined up in droves to talk about it.

The reality of a nationwide abortion ban is far more likely than you may think. I am not going to stand by and watch, and that is why I was so proud to vote for the Women's Health Protection Act, and, equally, to vote in the next few days on the Right to Contraception Act.

Madam Speaker, I will continue to do everything in my power to protect your right to choose.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source