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."
