One day after Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., announced she is pregnant, she said Thursday working women often give up their "fertile years" for their careers.
"My gynecologist at the [Veterans Affairs] facility actually, when I first started this over 10 years ago trying to conceive my first child, said, 'You know, so many of us professional women give up our fertility — our fertile years — in exchange for our profession, and that needs to change,'" Duckworth told CNN.
"Well, I want people to know that it is a journey, that it is a long process."
The 49-year-old Duckworth, who lost both of her legs in a Black Hawk crash during the Iraq war, revealed her pregnancy news Wednesday. She will be the first sitting senator in history to give birth. She is due sometime this spring.
Duckworth's first child was conceived through in vitro fertilization and was born in 2014.
"I've had multiple IVF cycles and a miscarriage trying to conceive again, so we're very grateful," she told told the Chicago Sun Times this week.
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