WASHINGTON — West Michigan Democratic congressional candidate Hillary Scholten opened up about losing her first child to miscarriage, saying a nationwide abortion ban after 15 weeks would have further complicated a deeply challenging decision about her pregnancy.
In a column published Wednesday in the Holland Sentinel, Scholten, 40, recounted learning that her daughter had Turner's syndrome, a rare genetic condition that cause a range of medical and developmental problems in girls. Scholten's doctors told her it was "incompatible with life," she said, and offered her the option to abort the pregnancy.
She was 29 years old and 14 weeks pregnant. Scholten wrote that she was "anguished to the point of physical illness" as she and her husband considered their options, but decided to wait in order "to give our daughter as much of a chance at life as possible."
The piece comes less than one week before the November general election, when voters will decide between her and Republican candidate John Gibbs, who does support a proposal by some Republicans in Congress to ban abortion nationwide after the 15th week of pregnancy. The two are running to represent Michigan's new 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses portions of Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties.
Michigan voters statewide will also vote on Proposal 3, which would enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. Michigan has a law dating back to 1846 that bans abortion at all stages except to save the life of the mother, which is currently held up in legal challenges.
Abortion has been one of the most animating issues for Michigan voters in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer that struck down a longstanding Roe v. Wade ruling that required abortion access nationwide.
A plurality of respondents to a recent statewide poll commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV TV (Channel 4) said abortion is the biggest thing pushing them to vote this November, with 36% citing it as their top motivating issue.
Inflation was the No. 2 motivating factor among 32% of the 600 likely voters surveyed, according to the Oct. 26-28 poll.
Six weeks after Scholten learned about the syndrome, she miscarried.
If congressional Republicans' legislation to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks had been law, she wrote, she would have been "placed on an an arbitrary timeline set by politicians in Washington" after learning of the diagnosis and would not have had the freedom to wait and see how the baby's heart developed.
"Missing from the national conversation on abortion and choice is this important fact: outlawing abortion will not eliminate complications in pregnancies," she wrote. "It won't take away choice, it will just change who gets to make the choice in these highly complex situations. It will take medical decisions out of the hands of medical professionals and the women who are impacted, and place those decisions into the hands of politicians."
It is the first time Scholten, who is a member of the Christian Reformed Church and grew up Christian, has publicly shared the story of her complicated pregnancy.
She decided to share her experience to show how being religious and supporting abortion rights "can be reconciled" and to reach other religious women who "haven't necessarily seen themselves and their belief in wanting to protect life that they have inside themselves" reflected in abortion rights advocacy.
Scholten and her husband consulted their pastor and researched the baby's condition. They weighed the knowledge that they could and would "eagerly" raise a child with severe disability with the understanding that she may live with serious pain.
"I think stories like mine have not really been able to find a place in the pro-choice movement," she told The Detroit News. "I wanted to exemplify how my faith informed my own decision, and how that is very much at home" in the fight for abortion rights.
She added that she hopes "it will get people to think a little more deeply about the issue."
"I don't know when life begins, that is a question for the ages," she said. "But we do know is that when these complex decisions arise, we do know who should be in the position to make these complicated choices. I believe that my story highlights why it's so important to allow women and their families and their doctors to make these choices for themselves."
