一位密歇根州参议员面临一场紧张的改选比赛已经成为第一位在任参议员，无论男女，与公众分享个人堕胎故事。
“某人经历的精神痛苦是强烈的，”参议员加里·彼得斯告诉《Elle》杂志的劳拉·巴塞特"试图为一个被通缉的孩子流产"
正如61岁的彼得斯所说，他的第一任妻子海蒂怀孕约四个月，在妊娠中期，她的羊水破了，造成了医生所说的胎儿无法存活的情况。夫妇俩被告知回家自然流产。
当第二天流产没有自然发生时，这对夫妇回到医院，医生建议堕胎，但说不能在那里提供，因为医院有禁令。夫妻俩又回家了。
彼得斯说，在没有自然流产的第三天，他们再次回到医院，医生告诉他们海蒂可能会失去子宫或死于败血症。据巴塞特报道，医院拒绝了医生要求堕胎的请求，但彼得斯夫妇能够在另一家医院接受堕胎手术，因为他们是医院首席行政官的朋友。
“如果不是紧急和关键的医疗护理，我可能会失去生命，”他的前妻在一份给《Elle》的声明中说。
“我一直认为自己支持堕胎，并认为女性应该能够自己做出这些决定，但当你在现实生活中生活时，你会意识到它对一个家庭的重大影响，”2014年当选参议员的彼得斯告诉《Elle》。
2019年9月10日，参议员加里·彼得斯离开华盛顿美国国会大厦的参议院民主党政策午餐。
他说他选择现在就说出他的故事正如参议院所认为的唐纳德·特朗普总统提名最高法院法官艾米·科尼·巴雷特在反堕胎广告上签名。
巴雷特的确认将代表法院的一个坚实的保守派倾向的块，这将有可能影响堕胎法在未来的几年里。根据第五巡回法院的判决结果，一个事实上禁止中期妊娠堕胎的案件，通过禁止堕胎的扩张和疏散方法，可能很快会提交给最高法院。
包括总统和副总统在内的共和党人已经指出，要针对民主党人对中期和晚期堕胎权的隐性支持。根据疾病控制和预防中心的最新数据在美国，怀孕14周后的堕胎约占所有堕胎的8.9%，20周后仅占1.2%。
去年，在福克斯新闻的一个市政厅里，在一个片段中，被问到在妊娠晚期堕胎的权利最近在社交媒体上疯传当时的民主党总统候选人皮特·布蒂吉格说:“我们谈论的是那些可能已经选择了名字的女性，那些购买了婴儿床的女性，那些得到了他们一生中最具毁灭性的医学消息的家庭，那些关于母亲健康或生命的事情，迫使他们做出一个不可能的、不可思议的选择。无论从医学角度还是从道德角度来看，这个决定都不会变得更好，因为政府正在规定应该如何做出这个决定。”
在竞选连任时，彼得斯面对的是共和党候选人约翰·詹姆斯在一个有争议的-和昂贵的-种族。据《五·三八》报道，彼得斯有一点优势在最近的民意调查中。
Senator shares family's abortion story, 1st sitting senator to do so
A Michigan senator facing atense reelection racehas become the first sitting senator, male or female, to share a personal abortion story with the public.
"The mental anguish someone goes through is intense,"Sen. Gary Peters told Laura Bassett for Elle magazine, "trying to have a miscarriage for a child that was wanted."
As Peters, 61, told it, his first wife, Heidi, was about four months pregnant -- in the second trimester -- when her water broke, creating what their doctor said were unsurvivable conditions for the fetus. The couple was told to go home to miscarry naturally.
When a miscarriage didn't happen naturally by the next day, the couple returned to the hospital, where the doctor recommended an abortion but said it couldn't be provided there as the hospital had a ban. The couple went home again.
On the third day with no natural miscarriage, they again returned to the hospital where, Peters said, the doctor told them Heidi could lose her uterus or die of sepsis. The hospital denied the doctor's appeal for an abortion procedure, but the Peters were able to get the procedure at another hospital because they were friends with its chief administrator, Bassett reported.
"If it weren’t for urgent and critical medical care, I could have lost my life," his former wife said in a statement to Elle.
"I’ve always considered myself pro-choice and believe women should be able to make these decisions themselves, but when you live it in real life, you realize the significant impact it can have on a family," Peters, who was elected to the Senate in 2014, told Elle.
Sen. Gary Peters leaves the Senate Democrats policy lunch in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sept. 10, 2019.
He said he chose to come forward with his story nowas the Senate considersPresident Donald Trump's Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who hassigned her name to anti-abortion ads.
Barrett's confirmation would represent a solid conservative-leaning block for the court, which would likelyimpact abortion lawin years to come. Depending on the outcome of a 5th Circuit decision, a case that would be a de facto ban on second-trimester abortions, by banning the dilation and evacuation method of abortion, could soon make it to the Supreme Court.
Republicans, including the president and vice president, have made a point of targeting Democrats' implicit support for the right to abortion in the second and third trimesters. According to thelatest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abortions after 14 weeks' gestation make up about 8.9% of all abortions in the United States, with just 1.2% occurring after 20 weeks.
Pressed about the right to abortion in the third trimester in a Fox News town hall last year, in a clip thatrecently went viral on social media, then-Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said, "We're talking about women who have perhaps chosen the name, women who have purchased the crib, families that then get the most devastating medical news of their lifetime, something about the health or the life of the mother that forces them to make an impossible, unthinkable choice. That decision is not going to be made any better, medically or morally, because the government is dictating how that decision should be made."
In his bid for reelection, Peters is facing Republican candidateJohn James in a contentious -- and costly-- race. According to FiveThirtyEight,Peters has had a slight edgein recent polls.
