Don Lemon speaks on women's rights during 'Paint The Polls Black' ESSENCE podcast.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00So, in the late 1980s, Fiona and her husband were happily expecting their second child.
00:03She was well into the second trimester when things took a tragic turn.
00:07We couldn't afford an ultrasound, so we didn't know anything was wrong until my water broke and
00:12I went into labor. They said the fetus had developed in a way that was incompatible with
00:16life. And I was like, what does that even mean? Basically, the organs were growing outside its
00:22body. My husband was crying. I was in a lot of pain and scared shitless, at risk of sepsis,
00:27and no one was helping me. They said I couldn't have food or water because I might need emergency
00:31surgery. And they couldn't give me anything for pain because it might slow down the labor. And
00:36they couldn't give me anything to speed up the labor because that would be a late-term abortion,
00:40which was illegal. I had to wait for the fetal heartbeat to stop. After three days,
00:45I was just begging, help me, please, you have to make it stop. And the nurse said,
00:50instead of begging for an abortion, you should be praying for a miracle.
00:54And then she offered to pray with me. I guess that was her way of trying to help me, maybe,
00:59or maybe just a way to feel better about herself. Decades later, Fiona told me this story with tears
01:05in her eyes. When I was in college, she said, I was a victim of a violent sexual assault.
01:10On so many levels, this was worse. And in some ways, it felt exactly the same.
01:15I didn't know what to say other than, oh, Fiona, I'm so sorry that this happened to you.
01:2030 years, and it's no better, she said. It's actually worse. Women will suffer and die over
01:25this. I asked her if the experience had had any effect on her faith. And she said, you can't
01:30blame God, but my faith in people certainly went to hell. I haven't been back to church since then.
01:35I was a Republican before. Now I'm independent. I will never again vote against a woman's right
01:41to make private medical decisions. It's about so much more than abortion, and it's so not how
01:47the pro-life movement sold it to us. That is what we need to know. And there
01:54are other instances in this book, just by researching it, that I came across that are
01:59pertinent to the election and why you need to be on the side of democracy.
02:05It's about the Supreme Court in November. Do not get it twisted.