When U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic presidential nomination Thursday night, she highlighted an issue that dominated the party’s convention this week: the reality millions of women face without access to abortion.
Each day of the convention, audiences inside Chicago’s United Center and watching from home heard harrowing stories from women who faced the prospect of carrying their rapist’s child to term, nearly dying from a miscarriage at home after being denied medical treatment, and almost losing their ability to get pregnant when they chose to be.
Harris said she’s heard similar stories from women, as well as their husbands and fathers, across the country in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which led to abortion bans and restrictions in more than half of all U.S. states. And she warned that Donald Trump and the Republican Party won’t stop there.
“This is what’s happening in our country,” she said Thursday. “And understand: he’s not done.”
Abortion access was set to be a key election issue well before Harris, an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights and women’s health, replaced U.S. President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.
But Democrats are betting it will gain even more attention under Harris, who leads Trump on abortion by 27 points among voters, according to an early August poll by Ipsos. They’re also hoping that wide margin will overcome the leads Trump has over Harris on the economy and immigration.
Nine states will also have measures on their ballot in November that will ask voters whether they want to protect access to abortion. Some of those states have enacted new laws since Roe v. Wade was overturned that restrict access during the earliest stages of pregnancy, which would be nullified if voters approve those measures.
The complicated legal minefield created by handing the issue of abortion back to the states — which Trump has called a “beautiful thing” — set the stage for women to share their stories at the convention this week.
On Monday, Kentucky activist Hadley Duvall recalled how she became pregnant at age 12 after being raped by her stepfather. She was able to have an abortion at the time, but Kentucky has since enacted an abortion ban that does not include exceptions for rape or incest.
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“I can’t imagine not having a choice,” Duvall, who’s now in her early 20s, said, adding that Trump was to blame by appointing the Supreme Court justices who grew the conservative majority.
“He calls it ‘a beautiful thing.’ What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”
Monday’s audience also heard from Amanda Zurawski, who described being denied an abortion in Texas after her water broke at 18 weeks, and Kaitlyn Joshua, who told of being denied miscarriage care in Louisiana. All three women spoke in front of stark black backdrops.
Zurawski and Florida woman Anya Cook, who spoke Thursday, spoke alongside their husbands, with Cook’s holding the couple’s infant daughter — underscoring the impact the health restrictions have on families.
“Two years ago, a miscarriage nearly killed me,” Cook said. “I needed care, but my state’s abortion restrictions kept it from me. I miscarried in a bathroom.
“I’ll never forget my husband’s face as he tried to stop the bleeding — trying to do what doctors should have been doing.”
There were also moments of joy. Kate Cox, a Texas mother who made international headlines after suing the state and then travelling to another state for abortion care that doctors said she needed to ensure her fertility, announced during Tuesday’s celebratory roll-call for Harris that she’s pregnant again.
“There’s nothing pro-family about abortion bans,” she said as she helped pledge Texas’s delegates to Harris.
Advocates for women’s reproductive and sexual health say the stories heard at the convention can make an impact outside of U.S. politics.
“Those stories are a window into understanding the humanity behind a topic that often is used to separate us,” said Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah, co-director of policy and advocacy at Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights.
Owusu-Akyeeah singled out Duvall in particular for “being brave enough to go on stage and tell that story.”
“There was just something about that bravery that I thought was super important and beautiful,” she said.
Democratic lawmakers also shared their own stories of being able to choose when to start a family, or the difficulty they faced with infertility treatments.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who became the first U.S. senator to give birth while in office in 2018, said in her convention remarks that she was only able to conceive her daughters through in vitro fertilization (IVF).
During his speech accepting the vice-presidential nomination, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also reiterated his now well-known story of how he and his wife needed fertility treatments to conceive their daughter Hope.
Democrats have warned that Republicans will seek to ban access to IVF after an Alabama Supreme Court decision in February temporarily blocked the treatment, and GOP lawmakers voted against an effort to enshrine access into law.
The current and former presidents of Planned Parenthood, Alexis McGill Johnson and Cecile Richards, respectively, spoke at the convention Wednesday about the importance of voting for abortion access, as did Mini Timmaraju, CEO and president of Reproductive Freedom for All.
So did surprise guest Oprah Winfrey, who touched on reproductive rights during her speech.
“If you do not have autonomy over this,” she said, gesturing toward her body, “if you cannot control when and how you choose to bring your children into this world and how they are raised and supported, there is no American dream.”
Democrats repeatedly warned that Trump would sign a national abortion ban into law “with or without Congress,” something Trump has denied.
But the Project 2025 policy document that has been tied to his campaign and members of his past administration suggests such measures as banning or limiting the availability of abortion medication, increased data collection on abortions from states and an “unapologetically pro-life” co-ordinator of women’s health initiatives in the U.S. government.
“Simply put, they are out of their minds,” Harris said Thursday night, vowing to sign a bill that restores abortion access nationally.
“We trust women.”
While the stories heard at the convention may affect votes in the U.S., Owusu-Akyeeah said the impact will go beyond America’s borders.
“I hope this will be a reminder for many Canadians who are thinking about what this all means for us, and (understanding that) access is still not 100 per cent guaranteed for everybody,” she said.
“This is health care, and everyone should be able to access this and make decisions that impact their bodies, their health and their future.”