'I nearly died on their watch': Woman calls out Ted Cruz and John Cornyn during tense Senate abortion hearing
The Senate held a hearing on abortion Wednesday, though many Republicans didn't stick around for most of the testimony. Among the women who spoke was Amanda Zurawski, who nearly died after a medical emergency during her pregnancy meant that she couldn't get an abortion until she was closer to death.
The morning consisted of anti-abortion activists speaking out about the mental and emotional harm abortion has on women.
"We've heard a lot today about the mental trauma and the negative, harmful effects on a person's psychological well-being after they have an abortion, supposedly," Zurawski said. "And I am curious why that is not relevant for me as well. Because I wasn't permitted to have an abortion, and the trauma, and the PTSD, and the depression that I have dealt with in the eight months since this happened to me is paralyzing. On top of that, I am still struggling to have children."
All of that, she explained, was forced on her.
"And I wanted to address my Sens. [Ted] Cruz and [John] Cornyn, neither of whom regrettably are not in the room right now," Zurawski continued. "I would like for them to know that what happened to me, I think most people would agree, was horrific. But it is a direct result of the policies that they support. I nearly died on their watch. And furthermore, as a result of what happened to me, I may have been robbed of the opportunity to have children in the future. And it is because of the policies that they support. What happened to me was horrible, but I am one of many. And quite frankly, I am lucky. I am lucky that I have a husband who could take me to the hospital, I don't have other children that I had to worry about finding childcare for. I have a job that was understanding that allowed me to grieve for three days as I waited to almost die. What about all of the women that don't have the same opportunities, that don't have access to health care? They don't have health insurance; they don't have a partner? What about them?"
The debate then turned to the fake narrative created by conservatives that partial-birth abortions happen. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) demanded to know if the doctors would perform an abortion up until the time of birth.
Each of the women explained to him over and over again that those things don't happen. The idea of a "late-term abortion" isn't real. As a Washington Post report explains, full-term pregnancies are at 39-40 weeks. To OBGYNs late-term is at 41 weeks. If something disastrous were happening at that late stage, a doctor would work as best as possible to save both the mother and fetus.
Still, Sen. Kennedy pressed the women to say if they would perform an abortion at that late stage - they reiterated that it's not even something to consider because it doesn't happen. Kennedy swore that a woman could come to them the day before giving birth and say she didn't want to give birth anymore and get an abortion.
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.3 percent of abortions were performed at or greater than 21 weeks of gestation in 2015," the Post explained.
“Women in these circumstances may risk extensive blood loss, stroke, and septic shock that could lead to maternal death. Politicians must never require a doctor to wait for a medical condition to worsen and become life-threatening before being able to provide evidence-based care to their patients, including an abortion,” the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said.
The specifics, however, are often so varying that it's one of the main reasons that pro-choice activists want politicians with no understanding of the issue to stay away from imposing policies. The point they focus on is for doctors to be able to do their jobs, explained Jen Villavicencio, an obstetrician-gynecologist in the Midwest, to the Post.
See the video below or at the link here.
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