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Minneapolis (AP) ― Abigail Taylor may not grasp how laws are made, but the 6-year-old's parents said Monday she's happy that her horrific accident in a wading pool could help prevent similar accidents from happening to other children.

Her parents, Katey and Scott Taylor of Edina, held a news conference with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. Klobuchar is pushing federal pool safety legislation that publicity about Abigail's accident has help jump start.

"I know Abby's thrilled," said Scott Taylor, the girl's father. "We just tried to explain it to her upstairs and I'm not sure she totally gets it."

The girl was in the wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park on June 29 when she sat on an open drain. The powerful suction tore out most of her intestinal tract, but she's recovering. Her condition was upgraded to fair Monday, and her parents said they're hopeful they can take her home later this week. They also said she'll attend school this fall.

Two or three days after the accident, he said, Abigail asked her mother whether she was going to be on the news, indicating she hoped to be. Her mother asked her why she wanted that.

"Because I want to make sure that this doesn't happen to any other boys and girls," her father quoted her as saying.

A Senate committee last week adopted amendments by Klobuchar that would require anti-entrapment drain covers and other safeguards on all public pools, not just new ones.

Klobuchar, who visited Abigail before the news conference, said she's optimistic both the Senate and House will pass the legislation soon because this case has grabbed the attention of Congress.

Klobuchar called the previously stalled legislation "a bill that has been sitting around for way too long." The bill is named for Virginia Graeme Baker -- the 7-year-old granddaughter of former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker -- who drowned in a hot tub five years ago when the drain's suction trapped her underwater.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a report in 2005 saying that at least 130 people had been trapped by the suction of pool and spa drains since 1990, resulting in 27 deaths and many more hospital visits.

Scott Taylor said they'll never know for sure how effective the legislation is "because we won't hear about the kids that are safe, that didn't get hurt."

He also said the family, including Abigail, has been encouraged about the extra steps they've heard that local parents have been taking since her accident to protect their children when they go swimming.

"When you take a kid to a kiddie pool you worry about drowning, you worry about horseplay," he said. "You don't worry about a child being disemboweled or worse in a foot and a half of water."

The Taylors said their daughter has a long road ahead of her, including more surgery in mid-September and another operation around three months after that.

Katey Taylor said her daughter can't absorb nutrients normally because she has no small intestine, so she will have to be fed through an intravenous tube for the rest of her life. She can eat only ice chips and the occasional Popsicle.

"She's handling it better than I'm sure any adult would," the mother said.

Scott Taylor said that except for her scars, Abigail comes across as a normal, skinny 6-year-old.

"Her spirit is so great," he said. "You look at her and you can't believe that this little girl has basically had her intestines ripped from her body."

The father also said Abigail understands the seriousness of what happened to her.

"She has a remarkable memory," he said. "With the exception of a few small gaps, she remembers everything."

The legislation isn't the only good thing to come from the tragedy, the parents said. Katey Taylor choked up as she told how the outpouring of support from across the country had renewed her faith in humankind.

"All of these people saying prayers and sending their love to our family and for Abby -- it's an amazing thing," she said.

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