A voice can have power.
It can articulate thoughts, challenge the status quo and inspire others.
In a world of noise, an authentic voice can shine.
And in this legislative session, the voice of Rep. Cecelie Williams shone brightly as she sponsored and championed legislation that would ensure no pregnant woman is faced with staying in an abusive marriage as she had to do years ago.
In testimony in the House and Senate, Williams shared how she was unable to leave an abusive marriage while pregnant with her fourth child. A judge told her that state law prohibited her from finalizing a divorce while pregnant. Her husband went on to die by suicide after their child was born, and days before their divorce was finalized.
By sharing her own story of domestic violence, Williams helped propel the bill, HB 1908, that she and two other legislators sponsored to the governor’s desk. The bill quickly advanced this year and unanimously passed in both the House and the Senate.
Gov. Mike Kehoe on April 7 signed the new law, which goes into effect Aug. 28; it clarifies a woman’s pregnancy status should not be used to prevent courts from granting divorce or legal separation.
“If we are serious about protecting life, we must also be serious about protecting vulnerable women and mothers,” Kehoe said. “House Bill 1908 ensures that pregnancy is never used as a barrier to prevent a woman from seeking a divorce in unsafe situations.”
At the signing, Kehoe shared how he appreciated Williams’ leadership and courage in sharing her story.
For Williams, the need for the legislation was clear-cut.
“I look at this as pro-life legislation, as well, because if I would have chosen that day to go and have an abortion, I could have come back hours later and filed for divorce,” she said at the bill signing. “Where in anything that we stand for as Missourians would we ever allow a woman to have to make that decision to save herself and to sacrifice her child. That’s something I could never imagine but definitely something we shouldn’t put on someone to have to make that decision.”
Kehoe testified to the power of Williams’ voice at the bill signing; he said he would never forget his initial meeting with the first-term legislator last year. In that meeting, Williams shared her story and how it brought her to the Capitol.
“I walked in the hallway, and I almost started crying … that’s the relationship my mother came from,” Kehoe recalled. “It hit home for me.”
Williams said she considers the bill signing her own personal Independence Day.
“I say it’s my Independence Day because I don’t feel like I’ve truly ever had one where I felt free from him,” Williams told The Missouri Independent after the bill signing. “But knowing that no other woman will be forced to stay in a situation that they don’t want to be in just because of their pregnancy status is everything to me. I once was silenced by domestic violence, and I’ll be the voice for those who still are.”
She is silenced no more.
Her voice resonates for those who can’t speak, and we, as Missourians, are better off for it. And her example reminds us that we all have a voice as well as a duty to speak up, challenge the status quo and inspire others.