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.”
Courtesy of Free & Just.
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.
