There was Hadley Duvall, calm and measured, hand in her pocket, as she recounted the violence that she endured before becoming one of the most prominent voices of the fight for abortion rights in her home state of Kentucky.
“Growing up, I was an All-American Girl, varsity soccer captain, cheerleading captain, Homecoming Queen — and survivor,” Ms. Duvall said onstage on Monday, with a pause and a pained smile. “I was raped by my stepfather after years of sexual abuse.”
She said she was 12 when she tested positive in her first pregnancy test. She miscarried.
Ms. Duvall, who is in her early 20s, said in an interview on Wednesday that the address at the convention — among the most dramatic moments onstage all week — was one of the most powerful experiences of her life, a milestone in her journey toward healing. She also said it was an opportunity to give voice to an issue that she contended was not about political views but about the burdens placed on young girls and women like herself when access to abortion is curbed.
“It felt like so much of my little self was taking her power back,” she said. “It is something that is going to keep my heart full for a very long time.”
She took the convention spotlight with two other women and one of their husbands to deliver emotional endorsements for Vice President Kamala Harris. The three women told of how their abortions, pregnancies and miscarriages were shaped, or could have been, by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Their accounts drew gasps and tears in the arena.
Ms. Duvall said Monday that although her childhood experience was harrowing, she was at least told at the time that she had options regarding the pregnancy — unlike many women today. Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe in 2022, triggered bans on abortion in almost all circumstances in Kentucky and several other states. Voters in Kentucky that year rejected a ballot measure that would have removed the right to an abortion in the state Constitution, but the Supreme Court upheld the state’s near-total ban a year later.
“I can’t imagine not having a choice, but today, that’s the reality for many women and girls across the country because of Donald Trump’s abortion bans,” she said from the stage. “He calls it a beautiful thing. What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?”
Ms. Harris has made abortion rights a pillar of her presidential campaign. The issue has galvanized voters across the country since the fall of Roe, helping to knock down bans on the procedure in more than half a dozen states, including Kentucky, Kansas and Ohio. But other states are weighing similar measures, and while opposition to bans has been successful on ballot measures, abortion-rights supporters haven’t been able to oust some of the Republican governors and elected officials who have proposed or signed the bans.
Ms. Duvall said Wednesday that she and the other survivors who spoke in Chicago checked in on each other ahead of their appearance and supported each other backstage, a bond that strengthened her confidence and eased her nerves. “All of our stories are so different, but they bring us together on the same topic,” she said.
If there was one thing that she wanted Americans to take away from her words, she said, it was that more people realize that what she lived through could be “the nightmare that any one of their daughters could be living.”
“I hope people realize that this isn’t about your political views,” she said. “This is about how women are affected.”
Ms. Duvall said she did not set out to become a prominent voice on abortion rights, but after the Dobbs decision, she felt compelled to share her story on Facebook. Officials with the re-election campaign of Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky reached out after seeing her post. Days later, she appeared in an ad for his campaign.
Mr. Beshear, a Democrat, spent nearly $2 million on the startling ads featuring Ms. Duvall, and went on to win by five percentage points in the Republican-dominated state. In July, she appeared in an ad for President Biden, saying that girls across the country, like her, “are suffering, their futures are being ripped away.”
As she made the case for Ms. Harris on Monday, she said a nationwide measure on abortion rights was required.
“Kamala Harris will sign a national law to restore the right to an abortion,” Ms. Duvall told the D.N.C. audience on Monday. “She will fight for every woman and every girl. Even those who were not fighting for her.”
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