By Gudrun Schultz
TOPEKA, Kansas, February 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Rep. Brenda Landwehr said she was inspired by a “higher power” when she told her colleagues in the House of her pain over an abortion she had many years earlier, during a debate on Wednesday over a bill to regulate abortion clinics.
“I live with that pain every single day because I killed a baby,” Landwehr said, while pushing for special state regulations of abortion clinics. She said that abortion traumatizes women.
Although Landwehr’s opposition to abortion was well known, none of her colleagues knew of her personal abortion history. She did not intend to make it public when she began speaking, she told the Wichita Eagle.
“I have to believe that it was supposed to happen,” she said. “A higher power guides us. Obviously, it was not something that was planned. I’ve served here 12 years.”
Landwehr, 50, who is married with three children, said her family knew of her abortion, which happened “a long time ago, definitely before I was a Catholic.”
She became a Catholic 15 years ago. She was married to her Catholic husband David for 11 years before joining the church. Landwehr said she was opposed to abortion before she joined the church although “probably not as strong as today.”
Landwehr said going public was the right decision, regardless of the outcome. “If it helps just one individual to have a change of heart, it was worth it,” she said.