Senator Gary Peters Shares His Abortion Story He's the first sitting senator in history to do so.

[Arkansas Granny]

United States Senator Gary Peters, a low-key, moderate Democrat from Michigan, is in a very tight re-election race that could decide whether his party wins the Senate. But he’s not the kind of guy who typically makes national headlines. He’s more known for being a dad who enjoys riding his motorcycle and drinking the local beer than he is for saying attention-grabbing things. So it may come as a surprise that with this story, he will become the first sitting senator in American history to publicly share a personal experience with abortion.

“It's a story of how gut-wrenching and complicated decisions can be related to reproductive health, a situation I went through with my first wife,” he told me in a phone interview Sunday afternoon.

In the late 1980s in Detroit, Peters and his then wife, Heidi, were pregnant with their second child, a baby they very much wanted. Heidi was four months along when her water broke, leaving the fetus without amniotic fluid—a condition it could not possibly survive. The doctor told the Peters to go home and wait for a miscarriage to happen naturally.

But it didn’t happen. They went back to the hospital the next day, and the doctor detected a faint heartbeat. He recommended an abortion, because the fetus still had no chance of survival, but it wasn’t an option due to a hospital policy banning the procedure. So he sent the couple again home to wait for a miscarriage. “The mental anguish someone goes through is intense,” Peters says, “trying to have a miscarriage for a child that was wanted.”

https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a34339956/senator-gary-peters-abortion/

[Walleye]

1. I don't think they care to understand why women have abortions.

It’s none of their business anyway.Especially the men. Usually they don’t wanna have anything to do with our reproductive system

[JenniferJuniper]

2. They want a patriarchy.

They don't care about abortion. They just want to keep women under control.

Handmaid's Tale.

[Walleye]

3. Absolutely correct. I think that's their main motivation for a lot of things

They can’t stand it when we just do and go as we please and don’t ask permission.

[pnwest]

6. I think it's more sinister and calculated

than that. They want a single divisive issue around which to coalesce their base. I believe they give zero fucks about abortion, they’re just using it as a smokescreen to keep all their other shit under the radar.

[JenniferJuniper]

8. Oh, that too, but if abortions are outlawed,

they automatically lose that single issue.

[calimary]

34. I'm not convinced they've thought that far ahead.

But it'll let the air out of the tire for the die-hard fanatics for whom anti-abortion was their be-all and end-all. One-issue voters.

Once they think they've won that, will they decide it's safe to roll over and go back to sleep, and relax for awhile 'cuz now they don't have to worry about that one anymore?

That's what OUR SIDE's done. Equal Rights Amendment anyone? The die-hards decided that close was good enough to declare victory, and they dropped the ball. Actually it seemed more as though they just set the ball down and decided the battle was over. The other side did not.

I just hope the this SCOTUS disaster is enough to FINALLY-FINALLY-FINALLY wake up a critical mass of Democrats, and KEEP THEM UP!

We ALL have to STAY AWAKE! PERIOD! Brief cat naps ONLY. I wish it were different, but it isn't, and we have to recognize and accept that. And figure out what to do about it, how to use it to our advantage - or most effectively contain the damage - and how to build it. That's one BIG way (of several) in which the other side beats us.

[Walleye]

43. Yes to all of what you said

[moose65]

11. You hit the nail on the head

Most of them don’t really give two shits about abortion. If their wives or daughters or mistresses wanted abortions, they would have no problems paying for it making sure it happened. They use abortion as a way to rally their voters, and to keep them focused on that while they pick our pockets with massive tax cuts for the wealthy and public money poured into their own pockets.

[pnwest]

14. 'zakly

[Mr.Bill]

18. If the Democrats caved in on abortion, health care and Social Security

(and I don't think they should)

The republican party would have little reason to exist.

[JHB]

29. That makes the error of assuming all factions have the same motivation

The Movement Conservatives have been calculating like that, using abortion as a wedge issue to divide Democratic constituencies. They started that quire deliberately back in the 70s. It was one of their tools for breaking up solid union voting blocks.

However, the religious/moralist nuts really do want a patriarchy because in their view that's the way God made it. Their goal isn't just banning abortion, but also birth control and laws that
prevent them from legislating morality (as they see it).

It also acts as a focus for despising one of the groups they both despise, feminists. Both factions profit from that.

[barbtries]

32. any guesses

about how many abortions they have between them?

[pnwest]

33. LOL, my guess is enough to shock their

own base...

[barbtries]

35. trump alone

has probably fathered in the double digits, given his well known aversion to using a condom.

[Walleye]

42. The whole right to life movement was started by Republicans to peel the Catholic vote away from the

Democratic party. Way back in the 70s when Catholics were overwhelmingly Democrats. It was cold, calculating politics. Probably Lee Atwater, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort. Thought they were being so clever

[pnwest]

47. Cold-blooded.

[LymphocyteLover]

30. It's sick, and it's super sick how they get some women to go along with it

[olegramps]

19. It has always been unacceptable to for men to be so vocal about something they know nothing about.

I believe it would be more than presumptuous of me to think that I should be able to tell someone that they must obey what I have to say when I am totally incapable of having that experience. The wonderous changes that take place for a women to bear a child are significant. It takes precedence over their body as I best can understand it. I will remain silent in determining any women's right to decide. It is somewhat analogous to celibate priests telling married couples how to regulate their family. It was properly summed up with the quip, "If you don't play the game, you don't get to make the rules." So men should just shut the hell up until they can get pregnant. I just what to add if anything they should just support their mate with love and understanding.

[Walleye]

22. Yes, exactly. Stated more eloquently than I did.

[Arkansas Granny]

26. I think this story is effective because he details the trauma and danger to the

health of his wife because of the restrictions on abortion that she faced. He was there and involved in the situation. He knows what he is talking about.

[olegramps]

50. I very much agree with you. It is always a very serious situation. I wish all women well.

Without them and their loving care their would not be a civilization. As my mother said the hand that rocks the cradle runs the world. The vast, vast majority of us can only have deep felt takes and admiration for our mums for our very existence and well being. How many times has the sad story been repeated when the mother is abandon and left to care for the children. It is a story that has been repeated far to many times.

[OnDoutside]

38. They just want to party like it's 1619....

That, and these RW religious nutjobs want people to have sex ONLY if it's for procreation. That's where they really want to go back to.

[Walleye]

40. They don't want other people to have sex. The rules don't apply to them

[OnDoutside]

41. Exactly. Know your place, and do as I say.

[orleans]

4. heartbreaking story. i can't imagine going through that. n/t

[Arkansas Granny]

7. I wish more people understood what hard choices some women have to make when

it comes to abortion and that they are sometimes necessary to protect a woman's health.

[StarryNite]

5. I thank Senator Peters all those who speak out

with their own abortion experiences.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

9. evolutionary psychology

says the deepest fear of men is to be a cuckhold. second to that is the fear that a woman may abort his offspring. it's why they hung the witches. they knew the herbs that brought a miscarriage.
it is our prime directive to pass on that packet of dna.

that is what drives all these patriarchal creeps. fear.

[Walleye]

24. Yes. I think the fear of being a cuckhold is part of the basis for racism.

[ihas2stinkyfeet]

37. well, when a white man rapes a black woman, and produces a child, it is so hard to hide.

rape colored skin. yet black men raise those babies.
white men not so much. ancestral guilt?

[UpInArms]

10. it reminds me of this story

Texas Forced This Woman to Deliver a Stillborn Baby

Daniel and Taylor Mahaffey were 20 weeks pregnant and desperately wanted their child, but when doctors informed them a complication meant the fetus had no chance of survival, they just wanted their baby’s suffering to end. Yet because of their state’s “fetal pain” law, the married Texans say they were forced to endure a stillbirth and wait as their baby slowly died in utero.

The Mahaffeys had begun decorating the nursery in anticipation for the little boy they planned to name Fox, after one of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan.

On Wednesday night, Taylor, 23, felt something abnormal and since their last pregnancy ended in miscarriage, they rushed to the hospital. By the time they got there, Fox’s feet were already pushing through his mother’s cervix. Doctors tried several emergency measures to stop the preterm labor, including putting Taylor on an incline in the hopes that they could perform a cervical cerclage—a procedure in which doctors stitch shut the cervix. Nothing worked. Nothing could save him.

Heartbroken, the Mahaffeys asked about their options. “The only humane thing to do at that point would be to pop the sack, and let little Fox come into this world too early to survive outside,” 29-year-old Daniel Mahaffey wrote Monday, telling his story on Reddit.

... snip ...

After four days in and out of the hospital, the bag of waters surrounding their baby burst and Taylor delivered Fox. “One nice thing is we got to hold him,” Daniel said. “That’s the only silver lining.”

more mindnumbing horror stories at link

[moose65]

12. Heartbreaking

Horrible that they had to endure that.

This article also included a pet peeve of mine - it claims that “they” were 20 weeks pregnant. Uh, no. “They” were not pregnant - SHE was. For some reason, the phrase “We’re pregnant” irritates the hell out of me. 🙄

[kskiska]

17. Same here.

[Walleye]

25. Me too

[roamer65]

13. That is why Senator Peters got my vote 2 weeks ago.

A compassionate and caring person.

[Marcuse]

15. Cold demographics: They want to increase the European-American birth rate by any means necessary.

[Lonestarblue]

16. That's at least part of the reason.

I suspect that if they thought they could get away with it, abortion would be illegal for white women and perfectly legal for all minority women. I’ve always thought that worries about the white majority is one of the reasons behind the religious cults pushing women to have as many children as possible.

[mainer]

20. This woman DID die, after denied an abortion

Savita Halappanavar's family said she asked several times for her pregnancy to be terminated because she had severe back pain and was miscarrying.
Her husband told the BBC that it was refused because there was a foetal heartbeat.
Ms Halappanavar's death, on 28 October, is the subject of two investigations.
An autopsy carried out two days after her death found she had died from septicaemia, according to the Irish Times.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-20321741

[lindysalsagal]

21. If Roe is overturned, the stories must all be published until it's replaced.

No more hiding the truth.

[bluescribbler]

23. That took courage

to speak out like that.

[demmiblue]

27. K&R

[dchill]

28. K & R.

[llmart]

31. I've just been rewatching the PBS series "Call the Midwife".

They deal with all sorts of issues that were prevalent in the 1950's/1960's albeit in the East End of London. They had a couple of episodes portraying women seeking abortions, coat hanger self-abortions, the nuns feelings about birth control, etc. It sure takes me back to a time prior to the pill and legal abortion. The thing that's most important to remember is that women have sought abortions since time immemorial. It's not going away. What goes away if they dismantle Roe v. Wade is legal, safe abortions.

As a side note, I was driving through a rural town north of me here in Michigan today and as I was leaving my subdivision I saw a big panel truck with pictures of aborted fetuses all over it. I have never seen anything like that in person though I've seen some pictures of something similar over the years. I couldn't help but wonder why today? Also, there were way too many Trump signs on my way out to the orchards to get apples. I always find it ironic that it's usually in the yard of the dumpiest houses. What level of stupidity do you have to have to keep voting for someone who hasn't done one thing for you?

[Arkansas Granny]

48. I've told this story before. When I was around 12 or 13 a classmate told me that her sister

who was 16 or 17 had gotten pregnant, but she had gone to Aunt So and So who got rid of the baby. This woman lived way back in the sticks in a tar paper shack just a few miles from where we lived in rural SW Missouri. No electricity, no running water, for all I know she had dirt floors.

It terrified me then and I find it even more terrifying now to know that some would take us back to something like that.

[niyad]

36. Would be willing to bet it was a catholic hospital. The hatred for women is profound..

I always remember that scene from "The Cardinal".

[BadgerMom]

39. I applaud Sen. Peters.

Before I read his statement, I thought that it could be even more powerful if a female senator had a story like his to tell. But I almost instantly realized that a female, no matter her credentials or the sadness of her story, would be demonized. By sharing this heart-wrenching episode he communicated how difficult these decisions are, how important the right to choose is and, really importantly, that abortions affect a couple and families. Typically these decisions are not made by a randy teenager as a substitute for birth control, a situation that seems like the idea conservatives harbor about reproductive decisions.

I’m contributing to Sen. Peters. Join me?
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/peters_ads

[AmyStrange]

44. I believe abortion IS murder, but...

Last edited Mon Oct 12, 2020, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

-

I also think NOT HAVING sex is murder.

REGARDLESS OF THAT, I still believe that women should have the right to decide one way or the other, because THEY have to live with that decision, unlike a lot of stupid, old, white men in the government.

Of course, I'll probably get lambasted anyway, because some people here won't read past my subject line.
==============

[Arkansas Granny]

46. No lambasting from me. You are still pro-choice even if it runs counter to your personal feelings.

I think there are many who share your feelings.

[BlueStater]

45. His asshole opponent thinks abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape and incest.

Why is this race so close? What the hell, Michigan.

[Delmette2.0]

49. The last lines of the article.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL. “In breaking the silence, he not only gives voice to what's at stake, but he reminds us of our common humanity and quest for dignity and compassion when we fight for reproductive freedom for everybody."

I will add, the Right to privacy.

[Rhiannon12866]

51. The senator appeared on with Rachel Maddow tonight:

Senator Voices Pain, Politics Of Medically Necessary Abortion - Rachel Maddow - MSNBC

Senator Gary Peters shares the pain and frustration he and his wife, Heidi, suffered when a wanted pregnancy developed complications that threatened Heidi's health but her doctor's hospital would not permit a medically necessary abortion. Aired on 10/13/2020.

[Rhiannon12866]

52. From CBS News: Sen Gary Peters becomes first sitting senator in history to share his abortion story

U.S. Senator Gary Peters has done something no other sitting senator has done before him: open up about a personal experience with abortion. In an interview with Elle magazine published on Monday, Peters talks about how his first wife, Heidi, was initially denied an abortion in the late 1980s despite the fact that her life was at risk.

Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, said it's a story of "how gut-wrenching and complicated decisions can be related to reproductive health, a situation I went through with my first wife."

Speaking to Laura Bassett for Elle, Peters said Heidi was four months pregnant with their second child when her water broke. The fetus was left without amniotic fluid and could not survive. His wife was told to wait for a natural miscarriage.

"The mental anguish someone goes through is intense," Peters said, "trying to have a miscarriage for a child that was wanted."

When that did not happen, Heidi's doctor recommended an abortion, but hospital policy banned the procedure.

Her health worsened as she waited days for a miscarriage and the doctor feared she could face a life-threatening infection. He tried to appeal to the hospital, but the abortion was still denied — even though Heidi could have lost her uterus or even died, Bassett reports.

More: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gary-peters-abortion-senator-michigan/