“Desperate Housewife” star Marcia Cross lobbied Wednesday for a bill that would allow breast cancer patients the chance to remain in a hospital for at least two days after a mastectomy.

The 45-year-old actress was present in a crowded Capitol Hill conference room, asking the Congress to pass the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007 to put an end to a rule that sends women home immediately after they underwent a mastectomy.

“It’s such a simple bill that it’s hard for me to understand why it’s been languishing in Congress for 10 year. When they told me about it, I just said, ‘What’s the problem?’” the actress said according to the Associated Press.

Joined by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., Rep. Rosa DeLuro, D-Conn., Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Lifetime network executive Meredith Wagner, Cross is asking the Congress to give women the possibility to recuperate at least 48 hours following a mastectomy.

Cross said she sustains the bill as she has several friends who survived breast cancer and were forced to go home after the surgery. She also added that she could not imagine how someone could go home the same day after losing one or both breasts.

“I tried to imagine losing a foot and then (people) saying, ‘OK, now go home.’... It’s just really unfathomable. One in eight women are diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. I’ve seen it up close and personally. I’m sorry to say I don’t have a friend, but friends who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer and when I fist heard about drive-by mastectomies I was shocked,” she said, according to the same media source.

For achieving her goal, Cross came with a petition containing 20 million signatures collected by Lifetime television on their Web site. Furthermore, she said she is “very optimistic” that the bill will be approved by the Congress this time as she “doesn’t want to go another five or 10” years.

She also suggested that media should take more action, show people what those diagnosed with different forms of cancer have to deal with, beginning with physical sufferance, and ending with the emotional damage they go through.