Around 100 abortion storytellers anxiously sat in the Eaton hotel in Washington, DC, on Monday, waiting to hear who would be the special guest joining them to conclude the first day of a three-day summit marking the third anniversary of the Dobbs decision, in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the federal right to an abortion and decimating access to care across the country.
One woman in a Planned Parenthood shirt turned to the person next to her and said, “If it’s Kamala, I’m going to cry.” Seconds later, former vice president Kamala Harris appeared on screen. “Hey everyone!” she said, smiling at the roaring applause from the room.
“I’m just so glad everyone is under one roof together,” she told the crowd via video. “I think that the work that you are each doing is so important, is so courageous, and to have these moments where you can be in a room of people that you can actually see, to remind you that when you’re out there telling your stories, that we’re all in those rooms with you.”
The summit, “Our Voices, Our Stories, Our Future,” was organized by Free & Just, a national reproductive-freedom organization that focuses on training and amplifying people whose lives were impacted by abortion bans, along with other reproductive access groups, and brought patients, providers, and advocates from 32 states across the country to DC for the Dobbs anniversary. During the three-day conference, storytellers attended skills sessions on how to share what happened to them, like one focused on writing a letter to the editor that organizers would then send out to local news organizations.
Harris, who made abortion rights and access to reproductive care central to her 2024 campaign, didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, but chronicled how the “administration” continues to chip away at reproductive rights.
Since taking office, Trump signed an executive order aimed at enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which seeks to prevent federal funds from being used to support abortion, spurring the Pentagon to rescind a policy that reimbursed military families for travel to states where abortion and other reproductive health procedures are legal. He signed other orders granting pardons to antiabortion activists who violated a law barring people from physically blocking abortion clinics or threatening patients. And, in April, the administration “paused $27.5 million for organizations that provide family planning, contraception, cancer screenings, and sexually transmitted infection services as it investigates whether they’re complying with the law,” according to the Associated Press.
Currently, 19 states ban abortion or restrict the procedure earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe, according to The New York Times—though the state of abortion access across the country is still changing rapidly due to legal battles and zealous antiabortion groups and politicians. ProPublica has found at least five women who’ve died under abortion bans—and advocates say that number is expected to be significantly higher.
“These bans, these executive actions and funding cuts have intentionally created a health care crisis,” Harris told attendees. “But,” she continued, “we know that the leaders in this room are not going to stand for this.”
In a statement to Vanity Fair, Harris said that the day the Dobbs decision came down, when she was sitting vice president, was “devastating.”
“For the first time, it became clear that young women today will have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers,” she continued. “But even in the face of that loss, we keep fighting.”
“Their voices,” Harris added, referring to the storytellers in DC, “are vital to our nation and to the ongoing fight for reproductive freedom. I’m grateful for their courage, their clarity, and their commitment.”
Three of the storytellers in attendance, Kaitlyn Kash, Kate Cox, and Amanda Zurawski, all of whom are from Texas, reflected Tuesday on the anniversary in an interview with Vanity Fair, just before heading two miles away to Capitol Hill to speak, or attempt to speak, to lawmakers.
The Dobbs decision, Zurawski said, “feels, to me, like the day the world woke up and started paying attention. Myself included, because I was early pregnant.” Zurawski, who nearly died when a Texas law prevented her from receiving an abortion after her pregnancy became nonviable, has become one of the most prominent abortion storytellers across the nation.
“Being able to speak out and advocate with my story has been really, really healing and empowering,” she said, “but there are so many people that don’t get that opportunity, and I worry about their grief and their healing and how much longer it might take.”
Zurawski, in March of 2023, became the lead plaintiff in a Texas case filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights that went all the way up to the Supreme Court. In May of 2024, the Court issued its ruling, refusing to clarify exceptions in Texas’s bans and rejecting the claims brought by Zurawski and 19 other plaintiffs who were denied abortions despite dire pregnancy complications.
Kash, whose story spans two years and involves four pregnancies, had her first abortion in October of 2021—several months before Dobbs, but after Texas’ antiabortion law, SB 8, took effect in September of that year. “By the time Dobbs happened, it was already the end of the world,” she told me.
“So,” Kash continued, “when Dobbs happened, I was just really sad, because I was like, there’s a pregnant person out there who’s going to get a bad diagnosis tomorrow.” As Kash headed out to the Hill, she said she was “fired up,” and it was apparent in each question she answered—angry, assured, ready.
This is Cox’s first major event since coming back from maternity leave. Cox publicly announced her pregnancy during the Democratic National Convention’s delegate roll call in August. Less than a year earlier, in December of 2023, she filed a petition for a temporary restraining order that would allow her to terminate her pregnancy. After a complicated, and expedited, legal battle, Cox was forced to leave the state for care.
“Today feels heavier,” she told me, as Zurawski and Kash listened, nodding. “I wasn’t paying attention when Dobbs happened. I was never someone who thought about abortion. I had my plate full with little ones and going to school.” She continued, “but now the anniversary hits and you really think—I look at my daughter and I think of the world and the rights I want her to have.”
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