Peter Deutsch: “I would like to speak in the short time that I have for the people who are not in this Chamber today, who cannot speak…”

“I would like to speak in the short time that I have for the people who are not in this Chamber today, who cannot speak for themselves but have spoken in other settings. This is a picture of Coreen Costello and her family. I am going to quote from a letter that she has written. If anyone wants it, they can ask their Member of Congress for the complete letter. Those who want to ban a controversial late-term abortion technique might think I would be an ally. I was raised in a conservative, religious family. My parents are Rush Limbaugh fans. I'm a Republican who always believed that abortion was wrong. Then I had one. Disaster struck in my seventh month. Ultrasound testing showed that something was terribly wrong with my baby. Because of a lethal neuromuscular disease, her body had stiffened up inside my uterus. Our doctors told us that Katherine Grace could not survive, and that her condition made giving birth dangerous for me-- possibly even life threatening. Because she could not absorb amniotic fluid, it had gathered in my uterus to such dangerous levels that I weighed as much as if I were at full term. At first I wanted the doctors to induce labor, but they told me that Katherine was wedged so tightly in my pelvis that there was a good chance my uterus would rupture. We talked about a caesarean section. But they said this, too, would have been too dangerous for me. Finally we confronted the painful reality: Our only real option was to terminate the pregnancy.…”