2 women backing Biden after abortion limits, medical peril
WASHINGTON — A Texas woman who went into premature labor, developed sepsis and nearly died and a Louisiana woman who said restrictive abortion laws prevented her from getting medical help for a miscarriage are now campaigning for President Joe Biden as the Democrat highlights how women’s health is being affected by the overturning of federal abortion protections.
Amanda Zurawski and Kaitlyn Joshua will travel to North Carolina and Wisconsin over the next two weeks to meet with doctors, local officials and voters. The Biden campaign sees their stories as firsthand accounts of the growing medical peril for many women as abortion restrictions pushed by Republicans complicate health care.
“The abortion topic is a very heavy topic, and I understand that,” said Joshua, 31, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “But I also understand and believe that the Biden and Harris administration is the only administration that could do anything remotely close to addressing the abortion bans ... and then also doing a deeper dive into research and understanding women’s health in general.”
Biden and Democrats blame Republican former President Donald Trump, whose judicial nominations paved the way for the Supreme Court’s conservative majority decision in 2022 overturning abortion rights set by Roe v. Wade.
Trump has promised to make a statement outlining his policies this week.
Since the high court’s ruling, voters have approved a number of statewide ballot initiatives to preserve or expand the right to abortion. Support for abortion access drove women to the polls during the 2022 midterm elections, delivering Democrat wins.
Joshua and her husband were excited to be having a second baby. But she experienced bleeding and serious pain at about 11 weeks.
At an emergency room in Baton Rouge, doctors wouldn’t confirm she was miscarrying or discuss medical options, she said.
She was sent home to wait. The bleeding worsened, and she went to a second hospital where doctors sent her home and told her to contact her doctor in a few days. A midwife eventually confirmed she miscarried.
“Something that sounds as simple as dealing with a miscarriage can’t even be met with a true diagnosis anymore,” Joshua said. “It’s really frightening.”
Zurawski, 37, of Austin, sued Texas last year after she and other women could not get medical care because of the state’s abortion laws. She had been in her second trimester, after 18 months of fertility treatments, when she went into early labor and was told the baby would not survive. Doctors said they could not intervene to provide an abortion because Zurawski wasn’t in enough danger.
Three days later, her condition worsened and she developed sepsis, a dangerous condition when the body responds improperly to an infection.shedeliveredastillborn girl, whom she named Willow. Zurawski then spent days in intensive care.