Marcia Cross joins Breast Cancer cause

Actress Marcia Cross is urging Congress to pass a new bill to prevent women who undergo mastectomies from being discharged hours after surgery. The Desperate Housewives star joined protestors on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday to rally for the government to pass the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007, which will allow women the choice of recuperating in hospital for up to 48 hours after having a mastectomy.  She says,

“It’s such a simple bill that it’s hard for me to understand why it’s been languishing in Congress for 10 years. “When they told me about it, I just said, ‘What’s the problem?’”
Cross, 45, admits the cause is one close to her heart because she has friends who have survived breast cancer, and she can’t believe how women suffering from the disease are forced to go home the same day after losing a breast. “I tried to imagine losing a foot and then (people) saying, ‘OK, now go home.’ … It’s just really unfathomable.”

And Cross is positive their lobbying will be successful this time:
“I feel very optimistic that maybe that Congress has shifted a bit, that health care is more in the forefront, that maybe, you know, this is the moment.”

Marcia Cross, center, joins Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., right, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008, to raise awareness of the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act and give voice to the 20 million signatures collected on myLifetime.com urging Congress to end the practice of “drive-through” mastectomies.

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