Duckworth on pregnancy: It’s about time to bring down ‘some barriers in the Senate’

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) said Wednesday she wants to start “bringing down some barriers” in the Senate, after announcing a day earlier that she is pregnant with her second child.

“Women have been getting pregnant and continuing to work to support their families for years and so, for me, it seems very ordinary, but it’s 2018 and it’s about time we started bringing down some barriers in the Senate,” Duckworth, 49, said in an interview on NBC’s “Today.”

When she gives birth in the coming months, Duckworth will become the first senator to do so while serving in the chamber. So far, 10 women have given birth while serving in Congress, but all were in the House at the time.

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Duckworth, who was elected to the Senate in 2016, gave birth to her first child, Abigail, in 2014, while she was a member of the House.

“For me, it took 10 years of trying to have my first child and then it took multiple attempts to get to this pregnancy, so what I say to women with disabilities: You can do anything,” she said Wednesday. 

Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot, lost both of her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq in 2004.

Duckworth and her husband, Bryan Bowlsbey, are expecting their second child in April.