The Hill News

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) went after some male abortion foes this week, saying they fail to acknowledge the considerations surrounding a woman's decision to pursue the procedure.   

"For many of them, it is all about a message, and they don't think much beyond the message," she told MSNBC Friday. "And they don't think about the experiences women endure when they have to go through something like an abortion, a spontaneous abortion, or an abortion because a woman can't carry the fetus, or because a woman has had an unintended pregnancy and can't take it to full term."

The California Democrat captivated her House colleagues late Thursday night when she revealed that a complication had once forced her to terminate a pregnancy. The revelation came as lawmakers were debating legislation to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood, a family planning resource center that also offers abortion services. 

“I lost the baby," Speier said on the cham! ber floor, directing her comments at the Republicans. "And for you to stand on this floor and suggest that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought, is preposterous.”

Speier said she "had no intentions" of disclosing her personal experience Thursday, but was inspired to do so after hearing Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) give a graphic description of the procedure.

"It was gut wrenching," she said of Smith's speech.  

Although federal law has banned the federal funding of abortions for more than 30 years, Planned Parenthood critics argue that no abortion provider should receive taxpayer dollars, even if the federal funds are directed only toward contraception, family planning and preventive care programs. 

"It's morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use it to fund organizations that provide and promote abortion," said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who spons! ored the provision. 

The House on Friday approved the a! mendment 240 to 185.

Abortion-rights advocates on and off Capitol Hill are calling on Senate lawmakers to kill the Pence provision.

Speier told MSNBC that the debate should have been about Planned Parenthood's "fundamental" family planning services. Instead it "devolved into yet another diatribe on abortion," she said.

"They do breast cancer screenings; they do cervical cancer screenings; they provide all the various family planning options, be they birth control pills or many of the other products that are on the market," Speier said. "So many women â€" not just poor women â€" many women seek out Planned Parenthood for those services."

The California Democrat said an abortion is "by no means anything you do lightly."

"It is a very painful experience; it is a very sad and hollowing experience," Speier said. "And I remember it today as clearly as if it happened yesterday."