Harold Hutchison, DCNF
Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado ordered staffers to take down an iconic photo of a baby whose pregnancy could be terminated under legislation passed by the House of Representatives during a Tuesday hearing.
DeGette, chairwoman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, gave the order after Republican Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama tried to enter the “Hand of Hope” photo into the record. The hearing was to discuss the effects of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade.
“I want to show a poster, this is world renowned, it’s gone in all types of magazines,” Palmer said before DeGette stopped him and ordered the poster to be taken down.
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“I think that’s pretty much self-explanatory,” Palmer told the Daily Caller News Foundation about DeGette’s reaction, saying there would not have been “such a loud banging of the gavel” if it had just been about the rules.
The photo, called the “Hand of Hope,” was taken by freelance photographer Michael Clancy for USA Today in 1999 and shows the hand of Samuel Armas grabbing onto the finger of a surgeon during a surgical procedure 21 weeks into the pregnancy.
“Suddenly, an entire arm thrust out of the opening, then pulled back until just a little hand was showing,” Clancy said on his website. “The doctor reached over and lifted the hand, which reacted and squeezed the doctor’s finger. As if testing for strength, the doctor shook the tiny fist. Samuel held firm. I took the picture!”
The House of Representatives passed the Women’s Health Protection Act in September, but a Senate filibuster has halted the measure. The bill would nullify parental consent laws in all 50 states and also legalize abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy, which would have included Armas.
DeGette and Clancy did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the DCNF.
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