3 Women With Harrowing Pregnancy Stories Will Speak at Convention

The three women, who have been supporting the Democrats’ presidential campaign, will on Monday focus on abortion rights, a key pillar of the party’s policy goals.

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Democrats plan to make abortion rights a consistent theme of their four-night event, underscoring how the issue has emerged as a central pillar of the party’s campaigns.

Democrats on Monday evening will spotlight the stories of women placed in medical peril because of state abortion bans, part of an effort by the party to capitalize on the lasting anger over the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.

All three women who are scheduled to speak on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago have become prominent supporters of the party’s ticket on the campaign trail, offering their deeply personal testimonials in campaign ads, White House meetings and political events.

One of the women, Amanda Zurawski of Texas, nearly died after going into premature labor at 18 weeks of pregnancy. The sepsis she developed as a result of her medical care affected her ability to have children. She later became a plaintiff in the first patient-led legal challenge to state abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court, with three justices nominated by former President Donald J. Trump, overturned Roe.

Ms. Zurawksi was a guest of President Biden’s at his State of the Union address in March and was featured in an emotional campaign ad, in which she sobbed about the loss of the baby she and her husband had wanted to name Willow.

Kaitlyn Joshua, another of the speakers, was turned away from two Louisiana hospitals while bleeding and in severe pain during a miscarriage. In a separate campaign spot, she said her inability to get the medical help she needed in a state where abortion is banned was “a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade.”

And Hadley Duvall of Kentucky, the third woman, talked about her experience being raped as a child by her stepfather in a pivotal campaign ad for Gov. Andy Beshear last year. Last month, the Biden campaign, before the president decided to end his re-election bid and support Vice President Kamala Harris, released a searing spot in which Ms. Duvall recounted how the years of sexual abuse resulted in a pregnancy when she was 12 years old. She miscarried but has said “the idea of politicians forcing me to give birth to my rapist’s baby is unconscionable.”

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