Women Are ‘Scared to Tell Their Doctors They’re Miscarrying,’ Louisiana Woman Says at DNC

Kaitlyn Joshua was turned away from two Louisiana emergency rooms while miscarrying in 2022. She said women "write to me saying 'what happened to you happened to me.'"

By Kylie Cheung  |  August 20, 2024 | 12:44am
Photo: Getty Images AbortionPolitics Democratic National Convention
Women Are ‘Scared to Tell Their Doctors They’re Miscarrying,’ Louisiana Woman Says at DNC

CHICAGO — On Monday night, three women—Kaitlyn Joshua from Louisiana, Amanda Zurawski from Texas, and Hadley Duvall from Kentucky—helped open the Democratic National Convention by sharing deeply personal, horrific stories of how abortion bans have impacted them.

Joshua recounted being turned away from two emergency rooms while she experienced a miscarriage about 10 weeks into her pregnancy. In fear of punishment under Louisiana’s abortion ban, which offers only a nebulous exception for threats to the pregnant person’s life and threatens doctors with up to 10 years in prison, Joshua says doctors wouldn’t even “confirm that I was miscarrying.” She was ultimately denied an emergency abortion to safely complete the miscarriage and suffered through prolonged, heavy bleeding and cramping.

“I was in pain, bleeding so much my husband feared for my life. No woman should experience what I endured. But too many have,” Joshua said. “They write to me, saying, ‘What happened to you happened to me.’ Sometimes they’re miscarrying, scared to tell anyone, even their doctors.”

Joshua’s harrowing personal story on stage at the DNC on Monday is reminiscent of testimony OB/GYNs gave before Congress in January. The doctors warned that their patients in states where abortion is banned—and even states where it’s legal—are afraid to ask basic questions about pregnancy and their health out of fear that they or their doctors could face criminal charges.

“The amount of fear that is induced now for individuals who are considering pregnancy, considering growing their families, who come to my office—even if it’s an annual exam just for a routine checkup—with questions, means some of them are too afraid to even ask me what their rights are,” Dr. Austin Dennard, a Texas-based OB/GYN who was denied an emergency abortion herself in 2022 after Roe v. Wade was overturned, said. “Because they fear putting me in a litigious situation. So, you don’t even get the medical care you need. You can’t even ask questions of your doctor for fear that either you’ll be at legal risk, or you’ll put your doctor at legal risk.”

On stage at the DNC, Joshua stressed that “America deserves better” and that Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “will fight for reproductive rights and our freedom in our shared future.” Joshua previously said her experience “has made me see how Black women die.”

Before Joshua, Zurawski shared her story of being denied an emergency abortion in Texas as a call to action for voters to support Harris. “I was lucky. I lived,” she said. “So I’ll continue sharing our story, standing with women and families across the country. Because of Donald Trump, more than one in three women of reproductive age in America lives under an abortion ban. He would rip away even more of our rights.”

Zurawski is the lead plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit alongside over 20 other Texas patients and doctors that seeks to clarify the Texas ban’s ambiguous exception for threats to the pregnant person’s life. In 2022, Zurawski testified that she nearly died of sepsis after she was denied an emergency abortion even though her pregnancy wasn’t viable and jeopardized her life. Though Zurawski eventually received emergency care, by then, it was nearly too late: Her right fallopian tube permanently closed and her whole uterus collapsed, jeopardizing her fertility even as she still hopes to have kids.

After Joshua and Zurawski, Duvall recounted learning she was pregnant after being raped by her stepfather. “At age 12, I took my first pregnancy test and it was positive. That was the first time I was ever told, ‘You have options,'” she said. “I can’t imagine not having a choice. But today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans.”

Duvall first shared her story in 2023 in a campaign ad for Kentucky’s Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat who managed to win reelection in the deep-red state by placing emphasis on Republicans’ anti-abortion extremism.

“[Trump] calls it a beautiful thing,” Duvall continued. “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”

The women’s speeches reflect Democrats’ emphasis on the existential stakes for reproductive rights in this presidential election.

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