Louise Slaughter: “Mr. Speaker, the women who undergo this late-term abortion procedure do so, they do so when they are left with no other…”

“Mr. Speaker, the women who undergo this late-term abortion procedure do so, they do so when they are left with no other choice. Often, this procedure is the only one which will save the life of the mother and preserve her fertility so that one day, in fact, she can have the chance to have another healthy child. I received a letter from one of my constituents who underwent this procedure. The child that she was carrying was the victim of a chromosomal abnormality so rare that it does not even have a name. Her child was missing genetic information, was missing internal organs, and her digestive system was in difficulty. After meeting with her rabbi, with a genetics counselor, talking with her doctor and with her family, my constituent decided to have this procedure because her doctor told her that it would preserve her ability to have another child. She is now the proud mother of a young girl, realizing, fulfilling the dreams of herself and her family to be able to have a baby. She deeply mourns the child that she lost, but she is grateful that she had the chance to have that baby girl, a chance that she would not have had if she had been forced to carry that pregnancy to term.”