Congresswomen on both sides of the abortion debate delivered emotional testimony at a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday amid controversy over abortion restrictions in Mississippi and Texas.
?WATCH?@RepKatCammack delivered powerful testimony today and told her story about how she would not be here if her mom had not courageously decided to fight for her.
We must stand for life and never glorify abortion. pic.twitter.com/wtVODQOZwO
— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) September 30, 2021
In the hearing, titled “A State of Crisis: Examining the Urgent Need to Protect and Expand Abortion Rights and Access,” an anti-abortion congresswoman shared that her mother chose to continue a difficult pregnancy, resulting in her birth, while others said they underwent abortions and wanted to ensure other women could do the same.
“I was not supposed to be here,” Rep. Kat Cammack said at the hearing, adding that her mother was advised by doctors to terminate her pregnancy while she recovered from a stroke.
“You can imagine the anguish my mother felt when she was told to abort her child,” the Florida Republican said.
Cammack said her mother’s decision wasn’t easy, but “despite everything, she chose life.”
“My mom survived. I survived, and I am a living, breathing witness of the power of life,” Cammack said. “Knowing you were never supposed to survive gives you a new perspective about life.”
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At the same hearing, Democratic congresswomen called for expanded access to abortion, saying they had undergone an abortion themselves.
Rep. Cori Bush told the committee that “in the summer of 1994, I was raped, became pregnant, and chose to have an abortion.”
“Choosing to have an abortion was the hardest decision I had ever made, but at 18 years old, I knew it was the right decision for me. It felt freeing knowing I had options,” said Bush, a Missouri Democrat. “Even still, it took me a long time for me to feel like me again, and until recently, I’ve mostly kept this experience to myself.”
To all the Black women and girls who have had or will have abortions — know this: We have nothing to be ashamed of. We live in a society that has failed to legislate love and justice for us.
But we deserve better.
We demand better.
We are worthy of better. pic.twitter.com/lZkpucCQ9v
— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) September 30, 2021
Rep. Pramila Jayapal said she chose to undergo an abortion after first experiencing a difficult pregnancy and premature delivery.
“For me, terminating my pregnancy was not an easy choice, but it was my choice. And that is what must be preserved, for every pregnant person,” Jayapal said.
Rep. Barbara Lee said she had an abortion in Mexico before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal across the United States.
“Now, I was one of the lucky ones, madam chair,” Lee said. “A lot of girls and women in my generation didn’t make it. They died from unsafe abortions.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, said she called the hearing “to sound the alarm on the grave threat to abortion rights and access in the United States.”
Last week, the House passed the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would prohibit some state-level abortion restrictions. The bill is supported by President Joe Biden but is unlikely to pass the Senate.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brought the bill up for a vote after the Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks on procedural grounds.
The court will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in December, a case concerning a Mississippi law prohibiting abortion after the first 15 weeks, in a case some argue could prompt the court to reverse or chip away at Roe v. Wade.
