Actress Amy Brenneman
Actress Amy Brenneman recently wrote an op-ed in Cosmopolitan discussing her own abortion – and lack of regret – and added her testimonial to an amicus brief filed on behalf of Texas abortion chain Whole Woman’s Health, the plaintiff in the abortion case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court last week, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
Today, Rep. Diane Black (R-TN) wrote an open letter in response to Brenneman’s piece, pointing out that the actress’s favorable outlook on her “uneventful” abortion and claim that abortion is “a necessary component of responsible family planning” isn’t really telling women the whole truth. “When we frame abortion as a means of female empowerment,” Black wrote, “we don’t tell the full story.”
In her letter, Rep. Black praised the work of pro-life pregnancy resource centers. As quoted from The Blaze:
Like you, I know what it is like to be single, pregnant, and uncertain of what the future holds…. Later, in my career as an emergency room nurse, I met other young women in this same precarious position. I believe that the pro-life community has a responsibility to those women.
It is why I have long supported the work of my local crisis local pregnancy center and other nonprofits that offer real, tangible help to women in this very situation — everything from diapers and formula to counseling and prayer.
Black went on to reaffirm that all other rights begin with the right to life:
I want every young girl, including my two granddaughters, to be able to — as you say — ‘choose their destiny.’ I believe that protecting those rights, however, starts with protecting the most foundational right of all: the right of a preborn, human being with a beating heart to see the light of day….
A young woman cannot choose her destiny if her life is cut short in the womb.
Black also took the time to spell out what HB2, the Texas abortion law in question, does and does not do:
First, it requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles so that a patient receiving an abortion can be quickly transferred in the event of complications and, secondly, it requires abortion clinics to abide by the same safety standards and licensing requirements as other outpatient surgery centers in the state. To be clear, the law does not attempt to illegalize abortion at any stage of pregnancy….
While I disagree with the choice of abortion, I do not believe any woman should lose her life at the hands of an unregulated, unsafe abortion clinic or a fly-by-night abortion doctor. That is what this law aims to prevent.
Last year, Rep. Black was appointed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel examining Planned Parenthood (which Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi renamed the “Select Committee to Attack Women’s Health).
Black and her fellow Republicans serving on the Committee stand in stark contrast to the committee Democrats chosen by Pelosi, who have in total received more than $300,000 from the abortion industry for their political campaigns, with $81,000 coming directly from Planned Parenthood itself, the organization they are set to investigate.
Rep. Diane Black has long been a defender of the right to life for preborn children. Just last year, she blasted the fact that “only three Democrats in the Senate could summon the decency to allow debate” on a 20-week abortion ban, and also sponsored legislation to freeze Planned Parenthood’s federal funding for one year while Congress investigates the charges against the abortion giant.
