Amy Brown, who’s married to anti-abortion rights U.S. Senate candidate Sam Brown, a Republican, spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday about how in 2008—the year the two met—she had an abortion at five and a half weeks, and that she regretted it.
“I just felt this immense amount of pressure that I had to do it. I felt all alone. I felt really overwhelmed, and I also felt a lot of shame,” Amy Brown told NBC News alongside her husband. “In that moment, I felt like my back was against a wall, and the walls were closing in, and I had one door out—and so I pursued that door.”
“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,” she added. “My healing process was a long one… but part of that healing came from hearing the stories from other women.”
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When Brown informed her now-husband of what had happened, she said she “could tell that Sam understood that this hurt, and that it was a very difficult decision, and that it was one that I regretted.”
Sam Brown, a self-described “personally pro-life” candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada, stated his support for exceptions in the case of rape, incest, and life of the mother, and reiterated that he opposes a national abortion ban.
At the same time, Brown opposes abortion without parental notification. And at a time when states like Texas are severely restricting abortion options under the threat of jail time, he said he believes states should be able to decide for themselves what limits to put in place. Referring to Nevada’s ban after 24 weeks, Brown said he’s “not in a position to—nor do I want to—do anything that changes our existing law.”
“I cannot change it. I will not change it,” he said. “I respect the law that the voters put in place over 30 years ago that grants access for women up to 24 weeks.”
Brown, who endorsed Donald Trump last month, lost the 2022 Nevada Senate primary to Adam Laxalt.
