SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A Georgia state representative tried to bridge the political divide over the abortion debate – but got an ugly backlash instead, she said. The Sandy Springs mother of two wrote about her own abortion and got it published on the Fox News website.
"My story is not easy to tell," said state Rep. Shea Roberts (D-Sandy Springs). She says she decided to request the space on the Fox News site in order to reach people who would likely disagree with her.
"If I had published in a place where people agree with me, I’m not moving the ball at all," she said.
In her piece, Robers wrote "my blood test indicated Trisomy 18 — a chromosomal disorder that they classify as ‘incompatible with life.’ Essentially, my pregnancy would end with the death of our child, either a stillbirth or my baby living a very painful short life of only minutes outside my womb before dying."
Because she was an older mom, age 38 at the time, Roberts says two doctors recommended an abortion. The doctors said the pregnancy risked Roberts' health, as well as the wellbeing of the two young children dependent on her at the time.
"(It) was a horribly traumatic time in my life. Probably the worst, darkest time I can think of," she said.
Roberts said her story got some support from Fox News readers. But she says she didn’t expect this:
“You are a c*** baby killer. Too bad your whore mother didn’t abort you,” one reader wrote.
Another wrote, “perhaps you should lay your head down on some train tracks.”
“Leave the American Nazi Party,” another comment said to the Democrat.
She said no anti-abortion adherents contacted her to say she'd given them food for thought.
"But I’ve got to believe I touched somebody," she said.
Roberts concluded her piece by addressing her Republican colleagues at the state Capitol – saying Georgia's heartbeat law likely to be enacted in a few weeks – could have cost her her life 15 years ago.