On the recordNovember 30, 2021
I want to start by thanking the Senator from Nebraska for helping to bring to light the significance of the Dobbs Supreme Court case. For some 30 years, I had the honor, the privilege of delivering a baby most every day of my life. Some 5,000 babies in residency and another 5,000 babies in private practice. Some days, I delivered none. Other days, it was one or two. There were days when I delivered 10, 11, 12 babies a day. Some of those babies I could fit in the palm of my hand. Other babies--I delivered several babies over 15 pounds. It has now been almost 4 years since I delivered my last baby, but I am still often asked: Do I miss obstetrics; and let me tell you, boy, do I miss it. My favorite part of the whole process, as I recall, though, was after a hard, long labor, seeing that baby emerge from the mother, holding that baby in my hands and waiting for it to cry. Sometimes it was crying as it entered into this world, other times it took 5 seconds, sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes a minute or two would go by as we worked on the baby. But my favorite part of every pregnancy was taking that crying baby and handing it over to a new mom and dad. It was absolutely the most spiritual moment of my life--the closest I ever got to seeing what God was truly like, to see a newborn baby in the hands of its mom and dad, with this just total agape love--this unconditional love. It was just the honor of my life to experience that almost on a daily basis.…
