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Texas activist Sarah Slamen: “It’s this police state that keeps us quiet” (interview)
You mention in the first few seconds of your speech that you had brought prepared remarks with you, but decided instead to speak off the cuff. What happened during the committee hearing to change your mind?
I wasn’t prepared for the endless stream of people standing up to call women murderers and promiscuous, selfish killers. How is that in line with Senate decorum and appropriate testimony?
I think it was around 6 o’clock [on Monday] that a woman stood up to talk about how her and her husband had spent most of their savings on in vitro fertilization treatments and that, after five or six tries, had finally gotten pregnant. But at 20 weeks, this couple found out that their baby had a rare form of spina bifida and would likely only have a 5 percent chance of survival. This woman recounted that, as soon as she learned she was pregnant, she had promised to love and protect her baby. And, in order to keep that promise, she had to have a medically necessary abortion.
After painfully recounting how she had to terminate this wanted pregnancy, a woman sitting next to her said, “I know two people who have adopted children with spina bifida.”
And not a word was said. Not one person on that committee of 20 had time to say, “Let’s not direct our comments to others providing testimony.”
I wasn’t prepared for the endless stream of people standing up to call women murderers and promiscuous, selfish killers. How is that in line with Senate decorum and appropriate testimony?
I think it was around 6 o’clock [on Monday] that a woman stood up to talk about how her and her husband had spent most of their savings on in vitro fertilization treatments and that, after five or six tries, had finally gotten pregnant. But at 20 weeks, this couple found out that their baby had a rare form of spina bifida and would likely only have a 5 percent chance of survival. This woman recounted that, as soon as she learned she was pregnant, she had promised to love and protect her baby. And, in order to keep that promise, she had to have a medically necessary abortion.
After painfully recounting how she had to terminate this wanted pregnancy, a woman sitting next to her said, “I know two people who have adopted children with spina bifida.”
And not a word was said. Not one person on that committee of 20 had time to say, “Let’s not direct our comments to others providing testimony.”
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/11/texas_activist_sarah_slamen_its_this_police_state_that_keeps_us_quiet/
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