Guided by our doctors and held together by our faith and prayers, we made a decision to spare her the suffering we knew was inevitable. The grief that followed was indescribable, but never did we regret our decision. I cannot fathom a politician substituting his or her judgment for ours and making that decision for us.

My story is why I stood for almost 13 hours on the floor of the Texas Senate in June of 2013 in an effort to block passage of the deceptive clinic shutdown law that is currently under review by the Supreme Court.

I stood for all the women who’ve walked in my shoes before; I stood in solidarity with the vast array of medical professionals who insisted that the law’s restrictions would harm rather than benefit women’s health, as its supporters falsely claimed; I stood because I trust women to make these constitutionally protected decisions for themselves.