Women With Dangerous Pregnancy Stories to Speak at DNC

The Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday on an especially personal note: Three women who survived dangerous pregnancy conditions will speak about their lived experiences, and their support for the Democratic ticket—Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz—to restore abortion access. The speakers include Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in a first-of-its-kind, patient-led lawsuit to challenge Texas’ abortion ban last year; Hadley Duvall of Kentucky, a survivor of child rape who had a rape-induced pregnancy; and Kaitlyn Joshua, a Louisiana woman who was denied emergency abortion care from two hospitals as she suffered severe complications from a miscarriage. Their speeches follow the Associated Press’s recent findings that over 100 pregnant people have been turned away from emergency rooms since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Zurawski previously shared her story in harrowing testimony as part of her lawsuit—alongside over 20 other Texas women—seeking to clarify the Texas ban’s ambiguous exception for threats to the pregnant person’s life. Zurawski testified that, in 2022, she nearly died of sepsis after she was denied an emergency abortion even though her pregnancy wasn’t viable and jeopardized her life. She eventually received emergency care—but not before her right fallopian tube permanently closed and her whole uterus collapsed, jeopardizing her fertility even as she still hopes to have kids.

In May, the Texas Supreme Court dismissed the women’s lawsuit, but they vowed to continue to challenge Texas’ abortion ban and abortion laws across the country. “This is not the last you’ll be hearing from us in this fight for justice,” Zurawski told reporters in May. She’s since been a vocal surrogate for the Democratic ticket, stressing the horrific consequences of abortion bans that the reversal of Roe v. Wade—facilitated by Trump, who proudly takes credit for it—has wrought.

When Duvall learned that, at 12 years old, she had been impregnated by her stepfather, she took comfort in one thing: “First thing that was told to me when I saw that positive pregnancy test was, you have options,” Duvall, who’s now 21, recounted in an ad for the Democratic ticket released in July. “If Roe v. Wade would have been overturned sooner, I wouldn’t have heard that and then it had me thinking, there’s someone who doesn’t get to hear that now.” She continues, “Girls like me across the country are suffering. Their futures are being ripped away. Trump and JD Vance don’t care about women. They don’t care about girls in this situation.”

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. Beshear’s aides have credited Duvall’s ad with having more impact on older, more conservative men in Kentucky than any other ad his campaign ran. Duvall told the Times that she’s addressing the DNC in order to “[give] voice to countless women and families who have been hurt by Donald Trump’s MAGA abortion bans.”

In January, Duvall spoke with Jezebel about her efforts to collaborate with state lawmakers to add a rape exception to the state’s total ban: “I’m telling lawmakers, even if they know someone who’s a survivor—if they haven’t experienced this themselves, they still have no idea what we’ve been through,” Duvall said. “It may not be today or tomorrow, but down the line, this could happen to someone you love. And if you can look them in the eye and tell them ‘You don’t deserve this medical procedure, even though your innocence was taken from you, your health is in danger’—I don’t know how they live with themselves.”

Joshua first shared her story in 2022. She and her partner were excited about their pregnancy, but Joshua began experiencing severe bleeding about 10 weeks in and learned she was miscarrying. Still, an emergency room sent her home, and she told NPR in December 2022 that a doctor told her, “‘You can continue to come back. Of course, we’re praying for you.'” The following day, Joshua’s miscarriage continued and she described bleeding and cramping so severe that “it literally felt like I had almost birthed a child.” When she returned to the emergency room, she was denied an emergency abortion to safely complete the miscarriage. “Just complete and total abandonment and just completely being written off by physicians that we saw,” she said. Joshua, who is a Black woman, said she also “[wondered] if white women get turned away like this,” adding, “This experience has made me see how Black women die. Like this is how Black women are dying.” Louisiana state law threatens doctors who violate the state abortion ban—which offers only a nebulous exception for threats to the pregnant person’s life—with up to 10 years in prison.

All three women will speak at the DNC on Monday night. It’s a sharp contrast with the Republican National Convention in July, which seemingly didn’t mention abortion once. Led by Trump, the GOP has been attempting to politically distance itself from the deep unpopularity of abortion bans—while still enforcing them and threatening to impose a national ban should Trump be elected. As these three women will attest to on Monday night, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Subscribe to Jezebel and follow us on Instagram and Twitter for continued coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.