Three women highlight the horrors of a post-Dobbs world at the 2024 DNC
In his joint address on the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Amanda And Josh Zurawski, Kaitlyn JoshuaAnd Hadley Duvall shared, through their own lived experiences, the brutal realities of a post-Dobbs America.
Their presence on the first night shaped how Democrats will focus on abortion rights, a key issue heading into November. March Poll by The Wall Street Journal found that in seven battleground states, “39% of suburban women see abortion as a deciding issue for their vote—making it the most motivating issue for this group.” Other speakers throughout the night, including 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clintonalso used his time to draw attention to attacks on “reproductive freedom.”
Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman almost dead due to pregnancy complications, was one of the first women to sue her state over its abortion ban directly affect her.
Zurawski had been undergoing fertility treatments for months before becoming pregnant—news that she and her husband Josh were thrilled about. At 18 weeks pregnant, Amanda was diagnosed with an “incompetent cervix,” and the Zurawskis were told that a miscarriage was inevitable. They also knew she was at high risk for infection. But, because of Texas’ near-total abortion ban, Zurawski was unable to get immediate care.
In her state, health care providers who perform abortions face life in prison unless the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life. Only if Zurawski had sepsis—a life-threatening condition—could she have an abortion.
“Every time I share our story, my heart breaks,” Amanda said Monday night. “For the daughter we wanted so much, for the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver her safely, and for Josh, who feared he would lose me too.” Josh told the crowd that “the fight for reproductive rights is not just a fight for women, it’s a fight for our family.”
“We need to vote like our lives depend on it,” Amanda concluded her speech. “Because they do.”
Zurawski, along with dozens of other plaintiffs, sued Texas over confusion over who qualifies for medical exceptions and when. The state’s Supreme Court judgment against them in May.
“Right now in Texas, they want the death penalty,” said US House member Crockett Jasminerepresentative for areas near Dallas, said Monday night. “While Kamala Harris are fighting to restore our reproductive rights.”
When Kaitlyn Joshua was six weeks pregnant, she said she called a group of doctors in Baton Rouge to schedule her first prenatal appointment, but was told she couldn’t get in for more than a month. “And I was like, ‘Oh my God. Is this what I think it is? And they said, ‘Yeah,'” Joshua told NPR.
Joshua recalled the woman telling him on the phone that, because of the Supreme Court, Dobbs Due to this decision and the subsequent state ban, the medical group decided to postpone the patient’s first prenatal appointment.
Then, when Joshua began miscarrying several years ago, she said she was turned away from two Louisiana emergency rooms. Joshua cited Louisiana’s near-total ban on abortion, with no exceptions for rape or incest, as making it impossible for her to get medical care. Even before Dobbsher status has one of the worst rates on maternal mortality rates nationwide.
“Because of Louisiana’s abortion ban, no one confirmed that I had a miscarriage,” Joshua said on stage. “I was in so much pain, bleeding so much that my husband feared for my life. No woman should go through what I went through, but too many have,” she continued.
“They wrote to me and said, ‘what happened to you, happened to me.’”
Hadley Duvall is from Kentuckyand when she heard the news about Caviar v. Wade overthrown, she decided to share publicly She first shared her story on Facebook. She wanted Kentuckians to understand the context in which the state’s near-total abortion ban, with no exceptions for rape and incest, would affect young women—and children—like her.
“Growing up, I was an all-American girl, soccer captain, cheerleader, prom queen and survivor,” Duvall said on the first night of the DNC.
When Duvall was 12, about a decade ago, her stepfather raped her and impregnated her. “That was the first time I was told, ‘You have choices.’ I can’t imagine not having choices,” she said. “But today, that’s the reality for many girls and women across the country because Donald Trump“‘s abortion ban.”
Then Kentucky gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear‘s group contacted Duvall and she appeared in an advertisement for the campaign.
“This is for you, [Kentucky attorney general] Daniel Cameron“Telling a 12-year-old girl that she must bear the child of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable. I speak out for women and girls who need choices,” Duvall says in the ad, speaking directly to Beshear’s opponent, who has spoken out against abortion.
A few months later in November 2023, Beshear beat Cameron by five points.
Tonight’s speech was in stark contrast to the notable absence of words — let alone any substantial political discussion — about abortion. during the formal speeches at the Republican National Convention. Although there have been concerted efforts over the past few years to celebrate, and take credit forthe overthrow of Caviar and the subsequent widespread abortion ban, speakers at the RNC were notably silent on the issue. In former President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech, he did not mention abortion once.
