Three women took the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night to recount their traumatic pregnancy experiences and defend abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling.
Women Amanda Zurawski, Kaitlyn Joshua and Hadley Duvall appeared together on stage, each taking the spotlight as they told their painful stories: doctors refusing medical help and, in Duvall’s case, being raped by her own stepfather.
All three blamed former President Donald Trump for the current crackdown on abortion access in many Republican-led states. Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices and welcomed the court’s 6-3 decision in 2022 that struck down landmark 1973 abortion protections.
“Every time I tell our story, my heart breaks. For the little girl we wanted so much. For the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver her safely. For Josh, who feared he would lose me too. But I was lucky; I survived,” said Zurawski, who spoke with her husband Josh. “Because of Donald Trump, more than one in three women of childbearing age in America live under an abortion ban. A second Trump term would take away even more of our rights.”
Hadley Duvall
Duvall, 22, became pregnant at age 12 after her stepfather sexually abused her. The Kentucky woman described how terrified she was.
“Growing up, I was a typical American girl: captain of the varsity football team, captain of the cheerleading squad, homecoming queen and … survivor. After years of sexual abuse, I was raped by my stepfather. At 12, I took my first pregnancy test and it was positive. That was the first time I was told, ‘You have options.’ I can’t imagine not having choices,” she said.
That pregnancy occurred long before Roe v. Wade was overturned. “But today, because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country,” Duvall said. “There are other survivors out there who don’t have a choice. And I want you to know that we see you. We hear you.”
“(Trump) calls it a beautiful thing,” Duvall said. “What’s so beautiful about a child having to carry his parents’ child?”
Duvall wrote an op-ed in the Louisville Courier Journal earlier this year describing her ordeal and what she told her childhood self.
I would love to tell that scared 12-year-old that she’s going to be OK. She’s going to play college soccer, be an All-American cheerleader, adopt the sweetest dog in the world named Honey, be the first person in her family to graduate from college, and prepare for graduate school so she can help other survivors. But I will always heal. I can’t stop thinking about another 12-year-old girl like me who has no choice.
Trump has said he supports exceptions to the abortion ban in cases of rape and incest and that he is in favor of allowing each state to enact its own laws.
Kaitlyn Joshua
Joshua said she was turned away from two different emergency rooms in Louisiana when she suffered a miscarriage. She then suffered the miscarriage at home.
“Two years ago, my husband and I were expecting our second child. Our daughter Lauren couldn’t wait to become a big sister,” recalls Joshua.
“I was getting ready for her fourth birthday party when something didn’t feel right. Two emergency rooms sent me away. Because of the abortion ban in Louisiana, no one would confirm that I had miscarried. I was in so much pain and bleeding that my husband feared for my life. No woman should have to go through what I went through, but too many have,” she said.
“Our daughters deserve better. America deserves better,” Joshua added.
Amanda Zurawski
Zurawski was the lead plaintiff in a major lawsuit challenging Texas’ abortion ban, which provides a narrow exception for the life or health of the mother. The Austin woman argued in her suit that the Texas law was too vague when it came to medically necessary exceptions. The Texas Supreme Court upheld the law earlier this year.
“When you’re expecting a baby, packing for the hospital should be a joyful moment. For us, it was different. We were told with 100 percent certainty that we were going to lose our little daughter, Willow. And we were sent home. We waited for three days until Amanda was sick enough to receive standard abortion care,” her husband Josh said at the conference.
“I’m here tonight because the fight for reproductive rights is not just a women’s fight,” Josh said. “This is a fight for our families.”
The resulting infection ultimately damaged Zurawski’s reproductive system and she said she would need a surrogate for future children.
“We must vote as if lives depended on it, because they do,” she said.
