As we enter what’s sure to be an intense year of political races across the country, one GOP candidate’s wife is opening up about a deeply personal experience that republicans don’t often discuss on their side of the isle.
Amy Brown, wife of Nevada’s leading Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown, recently sat down with NBC News to share about a 2008 abortion she had before she met her husband.
Amy Brown Speaks Publicly for the First Time About Her Abortion
“I’m sharing my story today so that I can provide awareness for what it’s like to live in my shoes, for women who have chosen to have abortions. And also just to provide awareness to women … that they can take a break, they can take a minute, they can process and hopefully know that they have options,” Amy Brown said.
Amy, who was 24 at the time of her abortion says she still regrets the choice she made to end her pregnancy.
“I think when I made my choice, I was under the impression that I was choosing freedom,” she says. “But I did not receive freedom.”
Amy says instead she received a “five year sentence to living with regret and shame.”
“I completely dissociated from the decision that I made, and I did not want to think about it and I did not want to process it.”
Amy says that when she shared about the abortion with her now-husband, “Sam could tell that this hurt, and that this was a difficult decision, and that it was one that I regretted.”
She says “he got it, and he felt [her] pain.”
Following his wife’s deeply personal recounting of a difficult period of her life that followed her decision to have an abortion, Sam says that Amy’s experience has helped shape his views and his opposition to not support a federal abortion ban.
The couple says they are choosing to share Amy’s story now in hopes that it conveys that even though they support some restrictions on abortion, they understand firsthand the seemingly impossible position women often face before or after an abortion.
“We’ve got to lead with compassion. And this is not just a policy issue,” said Sam Brown. “We’re talking about people’s lives. I would love to see the conversation take that into account a lot more.”
Sam Brown is a front-runner in the swing state of Nevada, where he will run against incumbent Senator, Dem. Jacky Rosen this fall.
Sam Brown and Nevada’s Abortion Laws
In Nevada, there is broad support for abortion rights. Abortion is legal for up to 24 weeks and beyond when there are exceptions, a law Sam Brown repeatedly said he had no intention of attempting to undo. When Brown lived in Texas and ran for a state legislative seat in 2014, he supported the state’s 20-week abortion ban, which at the time allowed some exceptions but not for rape and incest. In his recent interview with NBC News, Sam said he personally supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life and health of a mother.