‘LOSS OF A LIFE’: DeSantis, Ramaswamy Open Up About Miscarriages in Abortion Discussion

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, both Republican presidential candidates, opened up about losing their children during miscarriages while discussing abortion in an Iowa Thanksgiving forum. Both miscarriages appear not to have been previously reported.

“We wanted to have a family, and it didn’t happen at first,” DeSantis said at the 2023 Presidential Thanksgiving FAMiLY Forum in Des Moines on Friday. The FAMiLY Leader hosted the forum, streamed exclusively at The Daily Signal.

The Florida governor recalled visiting Israel when he was a congressman. “We went to Ruth’s Tomb in Hebron, and we prayed—we prayed a lot—to have a family, and then, lo and behold, we go back to the United States, and a little time later, we got pregnant, but unfortunately, we lost that first baby,” the governor said. “It was a tough thing.”

“We just kept the faith,” he added. “We just kept praying. We knew that there would be a path that God would lead us on, and, lo and behold, a short time after, we did it, and we had our first baby girl.”

He said the experience taught him, “I’ve got to fight for these kids.”

Ramaswamy emphasized the humanity of the child he and his wife lost in a miscarriage.

He recalled learning that his wife, Apoorva, was pregnant: “We were ecstatic, actually.”

He recalled writing a letter to their unborn child, but three and a half months in, “we lost our first child, and that was the loss of a life. It was our family’s loss.”

His wife “went into a state of depression after that,” but he said their faith consoled them.

“Our faith teaches us that our child joined his creator, and one day, we will too,” Ramaswamy added.

He went on to describe the birth of his son Karthik through a particularly tumultuous pregnancy.

“You protect all life, born and unborn,” he explained.

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