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"The Mental Anguish is Intense" Gary Peters (D-MI) Becomes First Sitting Senator to Share His Abortion Story

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NEW: Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who's in a tight re-election race against an anti-abortion Republican, has shared with me a painful story of his wife having a second-trimester abortion to save her life. (1/2)

t.co

'The Mental Anguish Is Intense': Gary Peters Becomes First Sitting Senator to Share Abortion Experience

“It's a story of how gut-wrenching and complicated decisions can be related to reproductive health."
t.co t.co



With this, he's the first sitting U.S. senator in history to share a personal abortion story. He said he's compelled to speak out about his experience because of the high stakes of the Supreme Court fight.

https://t.co/VA3VDbjWrO?amp=1



My story is one that's tragically shared by so many Americans. It's a story of gut-wrenching and complicated decisions — but it's important for folks to understand families face these situations every day.

t.co

'The Mental Anguish Is Intense': Gary Peters Becomes First Sitting Senator to Share Abortion Experience

“It's a story of how gut-wrenching and complicated decisions can be related to reproductive health."
t.co t.co

www.elle.com

'The Mental Anguish Is Intense': Gary Peters Becomes First Sitting Senator to Share Abortion Experience

“It's a story of how gut-wrenching and complicated decisions can be related to reproductive health."
www.elle.com www.elle.com

United States Senator Gary Peters, a low-key, moderate Democrat from Michigan, is in a very tight re-election race that could decide whether his party wins the Senate. But he's not the kind of guy who typically makes national headlines. He's more known for being a dad who enjoys riding his motorcycle and drinking the local beer than he is for saying attention-grabbing things. So it may come as a surprise that with this story, he will become the first sitting senator in American history to publicly share a personal experience with abortion.
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In the late 1980s in Detroit, Peters and his then wife, Heidi, were pregnant with their second child, a baby they very much wanted. Heidi was four months along when her water broke, leaving the fetus without amniotic fluid—a condition it could not possibly survive. The doctor told the Peters to go home and wait for a miscarriage to happen naturally.
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But it didn't happen. They went back to the hospital the next day, and the doctor detected a faint heartbeat. He recommended an abortion, because the fetus still had no chance of survival, but it wasn't an option due to a hospital policy banning the procedure. So he sent the couple again home to wait for a miscarriage. "The mental anguish someone goes through is intense," Peters says, "trying to have a miscarriage for a child that was wanted."

As they waited, Heidi's health deteriorated. When she returned to the hospital on the third day, after another night without a natural miscarriage, the doctor told her the situation was dire. She could lose her uterus in a matter of hours if she wasn't able to have an abortion, and if she became septic from the uterine infection, she could die.
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Reflecting on the experience now, Senator Peters says it "enacted an incredible emotional toll." So why go public with it? "It's important for folks to understand that these things happen to folks every day," he explains. "I've always considered myself pro-choice and believe women should be able to make these decisions themselves, but when you live it in real life, you realize the significant impact it can have on a family."

Peters decided to share the story at this moment because the right to make such decisions as a family, free of politics, has never been more at stake. He is alarmed by the threat President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, poses to women's reproductive rights. The very conservative nominee once signed her name onto a newspaper ad calling Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion, "barbaric." If Republicans successfully confirm her to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat, she could reverse legal abortion in America or significantly curtail it. "It's important for folks who are willing to tell these stories to tell them, especially now," Peters says. "The new Supreme Court nominee could make a decision that will have major ramifications for reproductive health for women for decades to come. This is a pivotal moment for reproductive freedom."
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Fantastic article, and the whole thing is worth reading.

And it's a great demonstration of not only how important rulings like Roe v Wade are, but even with them standing as the law of the land, they still often don't go far enough, and there's more work to be done on that front, not less, not to take away the rights and victories that women have worked so incredibly hard for and to make their lives even more difficult in those already impossibly-difficult situations.

Just an absolute must read, that I recommend fully reading to anyone.
 
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What a brave candidate to come forward with such an open and honest disclosure. Very very commendable. I'm not sure if this hurts or helps his chances, but I do think every story shared like this puts into context how important that giving women the ability to choose what happens to their bodies is vital.
 
take_marsh

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Not an account that your typical anti-abortion asshole can argue against because it involved a medical emergency.

The doctor appealed to the hospital's board for an exception to their anti-abortion policy and was denied.
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I imagine some hospitals deserve to burn and be rebuilt with proper medical ethics.
 
ezekial45

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NoName999 said:
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?
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If you actually bothered to read the article, or even just the quotes from the OP, and not rush to leave a comment like this, then you would know his wife went through a tramautic labor because they were denied access to an abortion. He's speaking for the experience he and his then wife went through.

Abortion is a woman's choice, yes, but It can also affect other people in profound ways--especially when they're denied access during a really traumatic period.
 
NoName999

NoName999

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User Threadbanned: Thread derailment and not reading the article in the OP. His former wife does provide a statement.
ezekial45 said:
If you actually bothered to read the article, or even just the quotes from the OP,
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You know what they said when you assume.

I did read the article. That doesn't mean it was his story to share. Nothing was said that the ex wife gave her blessing to tell this story.
 
Haruko

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NoName999 said:
You know what they said when you assume.

I did read the article. That doesn't mean it was his story to share. Nothing was said that the ex wife gave her blessing to tell this story.
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It sure sounds like she shared her statement with the reporter; I'd think it's safe to assume she was ok with this story

The whole experience was "painful and traumatic," Heidi shared in a statement. "If it weren't for urgent and critical medical care, I could have lost my life."
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Good on him for sharing this. More politicians need to openly talk about these stories, even if they are not their own. Abortion has been branded as murder but it's quite often the literal opposite.
 
OP
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ZOONAMI said:
Good on him for sharing this. More politicians need to openly talk about these stories, even if they are not their own. Abortion has been branded as murder but it's quite often the literal opposite.
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Indeed. It's especially brave on his part, considering not only is this type of thing naturally very difficult to talk about period, at any time, but he's revealing this when his Senate seat is up for re-election at that.

I wouldn't expect it to move the needle on that much, but you never know, especially considering how Michigan went in 2016. Of course, it shifted back in 2018 and there's not much indication anything's changed since, on the contrary, but it's just one more thing to consider for sure, and he decided to share regardless, because of how important it is to share stories like this.

I'm definitely pretty proud to have him as one of my Senators right now.
 
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