WATCH: Paint The Polls Black -  Don Lemon On Women's Rights - video Dailymotion

Don Lemon speaks on women&#039;s rights during &#039;Paint The Polls Black&#039; ESSENCE podcast.

Transcript

00:00So, in the late 1980s, Fiona and her husband were happily expecting their second child.

00:03She was well into the second trimester when things took a tragic turn.

00:07We couldn't afford an ultrasound, so we didn't know anything was wrong until my water broke and

00:12I went into labor. They said the fetus had developed in a way that was incompatible with

00:16life. And I was like, what does that even mean? Basically, the organs were growing outside its

00:22body. My husband was crying. I was in a lot of pain and scared shitless, at risk of sepsis,

00:27and no one was helping me. They said I couldn't have food or water because I might need emergency

00:31surgery. And they couldn't give me anything for pain because it might slow down the labor. And

00:36they couldn't give me anything to speed up the labor because that would be a late-term abortion,

00:40which was illegal. I had to wait for the fetal heartbeat to stop. After three days,

00:45I was just begging, help me, please, you have to make it stop. And the nurse said,

00:50instead of begging for an abortion, you should be praying for a miracle.

00:54And then she offered to pray with me. I guess that was her way of trying to help me, maybe,

00:59or maybe just a way to feel better about herself. Decades later, Fiona told me this story with tears

01:05in her eyes. When I was in college, she said, I was a victim of a violent sexual assault.

01:10On so many levels, this was worse. And in some ways, it felt exactly the same.

01:15I didn't know what to say other than, oh, Fiona, I'm so sorry that this happened to you.

01:2030 years, and it's no better, she said. It's actually worse. Women will suffer and die over

01:25this. I asked her if the experience had had any effect on her faith. And she said, you can't

01:30blame God, but my faith in people certainly went to hell. I haven't been back to church since then.

01:35I was a Republican before. Now I'm independent. I will never again vote against a woman's right

01:41to make private medical decisions. It's about so much more than abortion, and it's so not how

01:47the pro-life movement sold it to us. That is what we need to know. And there

01:54are other instances in this book, just by researching it, that I came across that are

01:59pertinent to the election and why you need to be on the side of democracy.

02:05It's about the Supreme Court in November. Do not get it twisted.