MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Having an abortion was something most women used to keep private. But since Roe v. Wade was overturned, some women have decided to go public in interviews, at protests and in lawsuits. And increasingly, they are becoming a political force. Rosemary Westwood at member station WWNO spoke with two of these women about why they turned their personal suffering into activism.
ROSEMARY WESTWOOD, BYLINE: Nancy Davis was 10 weeks pregnant in the summer of 2022 when she learned her fetus didn't have a skull. It was a fatal condition called acrania. But because of Louisiana's abortion ban, her doctors in Baton Rouge refused to terminate her pregnancy.
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NANCY DAVIS: Basically, they said I had to carry my baby to bury my baby.
WESTWOOD: That was Davis speaking at a press conference on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol. Davis was so angry that she emailed her local TV news station and eventually made national headlines. And it still took weeks to find the money and arrange a trip to New York to end the pregnancy.
DAVIS: I knew if I was going through it, other people was going through it as well.
WESTWOOD: While Davis was talking to the media, another Baton Rouge woman, Kaitlyn Joshua, was beginning her slow-motion collision with the new state law. She was 11 weeks pregnant when she started miscarrying, a story she later shared at the Democratic National Convention.
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KAITLYN JOSHUA: I was in pain, bleeding so much my husband feared for my life.
WESTWOOD: Joshua went to two different emergency rooms. The abortion ban was just over a month old, and doctors refused to end her pregnancy. She ended up miscarrying at home in great pain. It was frightening. Eventually, Joshua also decided to speak about her trauma to the media and started traveling with the Biden and then the Harris presidential campaign. At the convention, she said women were constantly reaching out with similar stories.
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JOSHUA: Sometimes they're miscarrying, scared to tell anyone, even their doctors.
WESTWOOD: One day, Joshua and Davis ended up speaking at the same rally, and they became friends. I sat down with both of them in August in Joshua's home in Baton Rouge. The two women said they felt a historic obligation, especially as Black women, to speak out for those who can't.
DAVIS: A lot of people go through their lives trying to find their life purpose or their life's meaning, but my life calling found me.
WESTWOOD: Davis has started a foundation to help women travel out of Louisiana for abortions. And Joshua is still traveling with the Harris-Walz campaign.
JOSHUA: When we go out, we are doing it for everybody, and we are doing for all the women that are being faced with adversity as a result of abortion bans.
WESTWOOD: And more and more women are coming out with their stories. One study of newspaper coverage found that as recently as 2018, only 4% of articles about abortion included a patient's personal experience. Now 20% do. Kate Cox sued Texas over its abortion ban. She told ABC News that personal stories like hers will be key to overturning these laws.
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KATE COX: How many people have to speak up? How many women have to tell their most painful journey publicly before something changes?
WESTWOOD: This November, 10 states will ask voters whether to add abortion rights to their state constitutions, and Harris is counting on this issue to help lead her to victory. Will these women and their abortion stories play a decisive role? There is some evidence they could. Tresa Undem is a political pollster.
TRESA UNDEM: People who have heard those stories versus those who haven't are more likely to say, the state of abortion rights will affect who I vote for in 2024.
WESTWOOD: In the states with ballot measures, campaigns say these stories have been central to their advertising and messaging. Katie Woodruff at UC San Francisco has been studying how people talk about abortion, particularly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision in 2022.
KATIE WOODRUFF: I think what we're seeing post-Dobbs is people who have not been following the issue in detail are surprised at some of the consequences of these laws.
WESTWOOD: Nancy Davis, during her visit with Kaitlyn Joshua, said people tell her that she has changed their minds.
DAVIS: Like, now I'm pro-choice, or like, you made me change my way of thinking, you know?
WESTWOOD: Davis went on to have a healthy pregnancy, and so did Joshua. Joshua's younger child, Liam, was playing near the couch. People still ask her why she doesn't just leave Louisiana.
JOSHUA: And I'm like, no. I am a Black woman in Louisiana. My people built the state. We're going to stay and fight for the state that we love. But I feel like as women of color, part of leading that...
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JOSHUA: ...Charge on this movement - exactly, Liam - that we are within our rights of being able to, you know, kind of step into our power here.
WESTWOOD: And they may get a sense of how far that power can reach quite soon after Election Day in November.
For NPR News, I'm Rosemary Westwood in New Orleans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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