A 12-year-old gave a speech at the West Virginia House of Delegates on Wednesday in opposition to new legislation outlawing abortion in the state.She spoke as the House passed a bill to ban abortion in the state, where it's currently legal up to 20 weeks, allowing for limited exemptions for medical emergencies and complications but not for rape or incest.
'I play for varsity volleyball and I run track. My education is very important to me, and I plan on doing great things in life,' Buffalo Middle School student Addison Gardner told lawmakers during a special session.
'If a man decides that I’m an object, and does unspeakable, tragic things to me, am I, a child, supposed to carry and birth another child?'
She added: 'Am I to put my body through the physical trauma of pregnancy? Am I to suffer the mental implications, a child who had no say in what was being done with my body?' she added, according to The Independent.
'Some here say they are pro-life. What about my life? Does my life not matter to you?'
Gardner was one of about 90 people who spoke in the public hearing, sharing their personal stories about abortion or women's rights ahead of the chamber passing a law to ban it.
The session became heated, with security escorting out many female members speaking at the hearing.
Legislators carved out exceptions to the law in cases where the fetus has no heartbeat or otherwise no chance of surviving, during a medical emergency or an ectopic pregnancy - where the fetus implants itself outside of the womb and poses a health risk to the mother.
But the bill, HB302, didn't provide an exception for rape or incest, something that women's rights activists had strongly campaigned for.
Other attempts by Democrat lawmakers to amend the bill failed, including an amendment that would have removed criminal penalties for abortion providers.
The opinion reversed 50 years of legal precedent and put abortion rights in the hands of individual states, unless Congress intervenes.
After the Supreme Court overturned the opinion, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey dusted off a 1849 state law criminalizing abortion, arguing via a memo that the old law was now enforceable.
Abortion lawmakers sued soon after, arguing the law was illegal under the state constitution.
A state court judge blocked the 19th century abortion ban, allowing providers to continue operating temporarily, but Morrisey soon filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court and a motion for the court to expedite the case.