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

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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/