Reproductive Rights Are Taking Center Stage at the DNC

From a van offering free emergency contraception to emotional speeches, reproductive rights have taken center stage at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week, as Democrats hope the issue will mobilize voters in the fall.

Speakers at the convention, like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have talked about abortion rights while throwing their support to Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid for the 2024 presidential election. Several women have shared personal stories of how they have been affected by state abortion restrictions, including Kate Cox, who had to leave her home state of Texas to receive an abortion after doctors said her fetus had a fatal condition.

“Trump didn’t care, and because of his abortion bans, I had to flee my home,” Cox said during the DNC’s delegate roll call on Tuesday. “There’s nothing pro-family about abortion bans. There’s nothing pro-life about letting women suffer and even die.”

Reproductive-rights organizations have also capitalized on the attention on the convention this week. On Monday and Tuesday, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers ran a mobile health clinic that offered free vasectomies, medication abortion, and emergency contraception just blocks away from the convention—a decision the organization said demonstrates “what is possible when policies truly support accessible reproductive health care.” Americans for Contraception set up an 18-foot-tall inflatable intrauterine device (IUD) near the United Center, one the venues for the DNC.

Read More: How Kate Cox Became a Reluctant Face of the Abortion-Rights Movement

Basil Smikle, a political analyst and former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, says that highlighting reproductive rights is a “strong strategy” for the Democratic Party.

“We’ve already seen in multiple states how when reproductive rights is on the ballot, it has become an extremely important mobilizing force in individual states,” Smikle says. “I think it’s something that Democrats feel, based on a significant amount of evidence, is going to drive voters to the polls in November.”

National polling data shows that most Americans support abortion rights. An Associated Press/NORC poll conducted in June found that about 61% of adults believe their state should allow a person to get a legal abortion for any reason—up from the 49% of people who said the same in June 2021, before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In most states where abortion has been on the ballot in the past two years, Americans have voted in favor of abortion rights, including in high-profile votes in Kentucky and Michigan.

Former President Donald Trump, Harris’ opponent in the 2024 election, appointed three of the Supreme Court Justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022 with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. As he campaigns for a second term, he has said he would leave abortion rights up to the states. Harris has said she would fight to protect abortion rights. Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has supported abortion rights and has been outspoken about his and his wife’s journey to conceive through fertility treatment.

Among the women who have shared their stories to advocate for reproductive rights at the convention so far is Louisiana resident Kaitlyn Joshua, who was turned away from two emergency rooms while experiencing a miscarriage. She blames the state’s near-total abortion ban for her inability to receive care. “I was in pain, bleeding so much my husband feared for my life,” she said at the convention on Monday. “No woman should experience what I endured, but too many have.”

Hadley Duvall also spoke at the DNC on Monday. Duvall is from Kentucky, which has banned abortion in almost all circumstances. While she wasn’t directly affected by Kentucky’s abortion restrictions, she has spoken about how her experience has made her an advocate for reproductive rights—Duvall became pregnant when she was 12 years old after she was raped by her stepfather. She later experienced a miscarriage. “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,” Duvall said.

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Reproductive rights have become a particular focus at the DNC this year, experts say, because it is the first convention since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Republicans largely avoided discussing the issue at their own convention earlier this summer. “Politically, abortion has been a losing issue for Republicans and a winning one for Democrats,” says Alexandra LaManna, former White House spokesperson for reproductive rights in the Biden Administration and a Democratic strategist. “The freedom of being able to make your own choice has been taken away from people and so making it front and center now is not only important—it’s imperative.”