Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who previously served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, is pregnant and will make history this spring when she becomes the first sitting senator to give birth.
Duckworth, a Democrat who represents Illinois, is expecting her second child in April. The Chicago Sun-Times first reported the news of Duckworth’s pregnancy.
Duckworth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.
Duckworth is one of only 10 women who have given birth while serving in Congress. U.S. Rep. Yvonne Brathwaite Burke was the first when the California Democrat had a daughter in 1973. Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has had three children since being elected to Congress in 2004.
Duckworth had her first child, a daughter named Abigail, in November 2014. Her second child, another girl, is expected in late April. Duckworth already made congressional history in 2012 when she became the first disabled woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She lost her legs and shattered her right arm when the Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was shot down in Iraq on Nov. 12, 2004.
