Louisiana woman affected by abortion ban tells her tragic story at the Democratic Party Convention

A Louisiana woman who has struggled to obtain medical care because of her state's strict abortion ban spoke out in support of Kamala Harris on Monday on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.

Kaitlyn Joshua was one of three women who took the stage to share how they were affected by abortion bans in post-Roe America. She told how she was turned away from two hospitals in Louisiana while bleeding from a miscarriage.

“Two emergency rooms turned me away because of the abortion ban in Louisiana, no one would confirm that I had a miscarriage. I was in pain and bleeding so badly that my husband feared for my life,” Joshua said at the rally. “No woman should have to go through what I went through. But too many have. They write to me and ask, 'What happened to you?' Happened to me? Sometimes they have a miscarriage and are afraid to tell anyone, not even their doctors. Our daughters deserve better. America deserves better.”

Joshua first told her story in an interview with Rosemary Westwood of WWNO in 2022, after the state's near-total ban comes into force.

She said that because of the ban, she was told she would have to wait until 12 weeks of pregnancy to make her first antenatal appointment, rather than the usual six to 12 weeks.

“They specifically said, 'We're not seeing any more women now until they're at least 12 weeks along,'” Joshua recalled. “And I said, 'Oh God. Is that because of my opinion?' And they said, 'Yes.'”

At 10 weeks pregnant, Johnson began experiencing troubling symptoms such as bleeding and labor-like pains. She went to two different emergency rooms but was turned away both times and ultimately refused dilation and curettage (D&C), a procedure that helps prevent miscarriage, or misoprostol, a medication used to treat miscarriages.

Some doctors in Louisiana are hesitant to treat miscarriages for fear of breaking the law, since the drugs and procedures used in miscarriages can be the same as those used in abortion.

“I think doctors are scared. So what can we do to reduce the risk of the Attorney General coming after us?” said Dr. Neelima Sukhavasi, a gynecologist in Baton Rouge. “And that's probably one of the things they think would be easiest.”

Another woman, Amanda Zurawski, along with her husband Josh Zurawski, described how she nearly died from pregnancy complications after being denied an abortion in Texas.

“Every time I tell our story, my heart breaks,” Zurawski said at the conference. “For the little girl we wanted so much, for the doctors and nurses who couldn't help me bring her safely into the world, and for Josh, who was afraid of losing me too.”

Hadley Duvall of Kentucky was raped by her stepfather at age 12 and became pregnant with his child. She ultimately suffered a miscarriage but wanted to report on how the abortion ban affects victims of sexual violence and advocate for reproductive rights.

“I can't imagine not having a choice. But today, because of Donald Trump's abortion bans, that's the reality for many women and girls across the country,” Duvall said. “He calls it a beautiful thing. What's so beautiful about a child having to carry his parents' child?”