On Thursday, women impacted by Trump’s abortion bans, Amanda Zurawski and Kaitlyn Joshua, spoke to reporters in both Tucson and Phoenix in order to underscore the threat, “Donald Trump poses to reproductive freedom.”
Because of Trump’s abortion bans, Zurawski said she was denied an abortion and nearly died in Texas—and Joshua was turned away from two emergency rooms while experiencing a miscarriage in Louisiana.
Both women have decided to campaign for Biden-Harris along with local pro-reproductive rights leaders across Arizona.
For both women the message was clear: Trump is responsible for what happened to them and the reason why Arizonans are still living under an archaic abortion ban (set to be repealed, but still technically in effect) with no exceptions for rape or incest.
Both women highlighted the need to elect President Biden who has pledged to protect women’s reproductive freedom.
Texas’ abortion trigger law, a near-total ban that took effect in the summer of 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, ended up nearly killing Zurawski, who was in Phoenix on Thursday afternoon as part of a President Joe Biden reelection campaign event that focused on reproductive rights.
Though Zurawski’s baby had no chance of surviving after her water broke, doctors refused to induce labor because the baby still had a heartbeat and they did not want to violate the state’s abortion law.
Zurawski went home for three days, developed a bacterial infection and nearly died from septic shock. Damage from the infection means she will need a surrogate in order to have children, she said.
If Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is elected to the White House again, “what happened to me will be the norm,” Zurawski said.
Democrats’ national campaign operations have targeted vulnerable Republicans on abortion access, expecting it will boost Democratic turnout in this year’s elections.
Zurawski of Austin, Texas; made national headlines for her near-death experience after she was denied abortion care.
“This is a problem not just in Texas, not just in the South. This is an everywhere problem and if Donald Trump is reelected, this will be a national problem because he will enact a national abortion ban and what happened to me will be a blunt,” Zurawski said.
Zurawski is traveling across the country to share her story as part of the Biden campaign efforts, along with Kaitlyn Joshua, a Louisiana resident who was turned away from two different emergency departments after she experienced a miscarriage at 11 weeks.
Joshua told reporters she was bleeding and in pain but denied care at two hospitals.
Both women say they and other women who have been met with “similar or worse” encounters seeking healthcare will continue to speak for reproductive rights at President Biden-Harris rallies.
