Meet Jamie.
H.R. 3, currently awaiting a floor vote in the U.S. House, will kill women like her. It will effectively prohibit insurance companies from covering medical care for women ending pregnancies -- without regard to medical necessity.
People use stories to make sense of the world, and the Republicans are very good at making the default stories that come to mind on issues they're working on be horrific stories. (Anyone remember "welfare queens"?) The human brain is wired to remember and understand things through stories and parables.
Women will die because we haven't told the stories that help people understand why abortions are necessary.
If we want to start winning on abortion, we need to change the default stories from the ones the Republicans have planted (of "irresponsible women using abortion as birth control") to stories that most Americans will have an immediate emotional reaction to, like Jamie's. We need to tell the real stories of why women end pregnancies.
We need people, when they think about a woman ending a pregnancy, to feel sympathy -- to feel protective of the woman, and of her right to the medical care she needs.
Please help me begin to make that story come alive in people's heads. If you have a way of sharing this video, please do so.
And if you have a story of your own to tell, please tell it.Updated by Darcy Burner at Sat Feb 19, 2011, 11:04:50 AM
Transcript of the video:
My husband and I wanted to start a family – desperately. And we had had some trouble. I had had two miscarriages. And then I found myself pregnant again. And we were thrilled. We were sure that this pregnancy would result in a much loved and much wanted baby.
[Caption: But sometimes things go catastrophically wrong]
And at 22 weeks along, my water broke. And I was terrified. We were told that if I continued with this pregnancy, that my health was at risk, the fetus was infected, and it was very dangerous to continue with this pregnancy.
For my own safety, we were provided with the opportunity to have a procedure done that would ensure my survival and the future of my family.
I was able to become pregnant again, and they’re now 6 and 4: my Cece, and my beautiful Maya. I can’t imagine my life without them.
The stakes of H.R. 3 are high. This bill is the biggest assault on women’s health in 40 years. We need to stand up and say, “No!” I can’t imagine being forced to continue with a pregnancy that would endanger my life and would endanger my future. I might not be here today had I not had that choice.
[Caption: Women and their doctors should make medical decisions. Not politicians.]
And my children might not be here today had I not had that choice.
I don’t understand why anyone who cares about the lives of women would support this bill.