This Woman Went Into Labor and Made it to the Polls Anyway
If you're a citizen and eligible to vote, someone's probably already told you that there's no good excuse to skip it. Have a cold? Don't care. Have a deadline? It'll still be there when you get back. Have a problem with both of the candidates? Pobody's nerfect, okay, and one of them is basically satanic. People, you must go vote! And if you don't want to listen to me, listen to Jess Leibfried, who was in labor with her first child and still made it to the polls.
Leibfried posted in Pantsuit Nation, a private Facebook group that has two million members and the power to make even the steeliest woman weep, that she "absolutely had to make it to the polls to cast my vote for Hillary."
In an email she sent while she was still in labor, Leibfried added the fact that she knew she would give birth to a girl during this election cycle "definitely increased my engagement in this historic race."
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"The scariest part for me was the hate that surfaced and the tokenism that was demonstrated," she said. "To say that all immigrants are one thing or all Muslims are one thing is such an ill-educated and fear-based way of living life. To sexually abuse and harass women and normalize that behavior is so horrific-both for women and for the men who treat women with respect and dignity. America is a great country and our differences are beautiful. I think if we could spend more time listening and learning and less time talking, we'd actually discover that we have more to celebrate and less to fear."
And while Leibfried had always been "determined" to make it to the polls, even she didn't realize how emotional it would be to vote until she got there. "[I] found myself sitting in the booth, staring at the ballot I had just filled out and thinking about my unborn daughter," she said. "I had to stop myself from filling in the bubble too much for fear of tearing the paper!"
And moreover, Leibfried said she had her eye on the future, fixed on the moment that she would tell her daughter about this historic election. "I want to send her a message that she is strong," Leibfried said. "She is powerful. And she has a great responsibility to lift up her voice and choose how she interacts with the people around her."
As of now, Leibfried is still in labor, but she said she has her fingers crossed she gives birth today and to a baby girl who knows with complete certainty she can be whatever she wants to be-even President of the United States.
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