It’s been nearly three years since Alabama Republican Congresswoman Martha Roby was the first member to give an impassioned one-minute speech on the House floor decrying Planned Parenthood after alarming undercover videos surfaced about the abortion provider’s sale of fetal body parts.
Roby, who will next month face former Democrat Congressman Bobby Bright in a GOP primary runoff for Alabama’s 2nd congressional district, appeared on Alabama-based EWTN last week and recalled what it was like to see the Center for Medical Progress videos and speak out about them.
“Even to hear [a replay of the speech] now is very emotional,” Roby said, with tears coming to her eyes. “I remember I was sitting in an appropriations markup, committee mark, that morning, and was scrolling through Twitter on my phone and came across the article and just couldn’t believe what I was reading, and I immediately texted the link to my staff and said, ‘Is this real? Is this really happening?’ So as soon as the committee mark was over, I immediately went to the floor to give that one-minute speech … and one minute was not nearly enough. I distinctly remember there were other members waiting in line to give their one-minutes and they too were filled with emotion at hearing this for the first time.”
WATCH Roby’s July 2015 speech:
Roby told EWTN host Catherine Hadro she takes any opportunity to fight for the unborn and is “unapologetically pro-life,” considering it “an amazing privilege to be able to be a voice in Congress for those who have no voice.”
WATCH the entire interview here:
Roby recently received President Trump’s endorsement despite her de-endorsement of the president following the release of his “Access Hollywood” demeaning comments about women.
Roby also earlier this year secured the endorsements of major pro-life groups including National Right to Life and the Susan B. Anthony List.
In his Roby endorsement tweet, Trump called Roby’s challenger, Bobby Bright, a “Nancy Pelosi voting Democrat” to which Bright responded in a statement to Al.com that “I understand politics and how Washington works. It appears the D.C. powerbrokers have gotten to the President on this issue.”
Bright is a former Montgomery mayor, served one term in Congress as a Democrat before Roby defeated him in 2010, and says he is pro-life. As reported by the Montgomery Advertiser, Bright said, “My time in Congress as a conservative Blue Dog Democrat convinced me we were a dying breed and that I was more closely aligned with the Republican Party. I parted company with the Democrats on all major policy issues and that is why I am running as a Republican.”
Roby’s latest ad challenges Bright’s claims of conservatism, saying in a campaign press release that Bright “[supported] Barack Obama and Democrats in Washington. With his first vote in Congress representing the people of AL-02, Bobby Bright voted to give Nancy Pelosi the Speaker’s gavel, calling the decision a ‘no-brainer.'”
The runoff election for Alabama’s second congressional district is July 17.
Rachel Blackmon Bryars is managing editor of Yellowhammer News
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