Amanda Cappelletti was the first Pennsylvania state senator to give birth in office. Now she is mourning the loss of her pregnancy.

Just over a week ago, State Senator Amanda Cappelletti learned that her nearly 10-week-old fetus was not showing the electrical activity needed for a heart to beat.

Cappelletti will need a dilation and evacuation procedure to prevent complications her unviable pregnancy ended spontaneously. She had an abortion last Monday, just a week before Election Day.

The Montgomery County Democrat made history last year as the first state senator to give birth to her 19-month-old daughter, Taglia McQuiston, while in office. She no longer hid her two previous miscarriages.

Now, just days before voters go to the polls on Tuesday, where access to abortion is a critical issue for voters, Cappelletti is speaking out about her family’s latest heartbreaking loss.

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Cappelletti is grateful that as a resident of Pennsylvania, where abortion is available up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, she received the medical care she needed. But she knows that may not have been the case for women 21 states with restrictive or complete abortion bans on site.

“I don’t know if I’ve fully processed my grief because I immediately thought about it,” Cappelletti said in an emotional interview just days after her loss.

In the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the constitutional right to abortion, maternal mortality has increased in states with more restrictive abortion laws. it will be years until the effects of the laws are clarified.

Some ProPublica investigative series tracked down at least four women who died “preventable” deaths – mostly because they needed abortions in the face of miscarriage, but health care workers couldn’t act without risking criminal charges until the fetus had a heartbeat. One of these reports, published on November 1, documented a 20-hour wait and three visits to the emergency room one Texas teenager did so before dying from an infection during a miscarriage.

Cappelletti’s health was not immediately in danger. However, if she waited for her body to reject the pregnancy on its own, she would be at greater risk of unsafe bleeding or infection, her doctor said. And since Cappelletti’s fetus had no heartbeat, she may be able to undergo the medical procedure even in states with the strictest abortion bans.

» READ MORE: The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Here’s the state of abortion rights in the U.S. today

However, she said she fears that if former President Donald Trump is re-elected, he will restrict abortion nationwide, as detailed in the conservative Project 2025. Trump distanced himself from the 900-page policy program, even though it was authored by 140 former Trump administration officials. . officials.

“I was aware that the procedure I would have the week before Election Day might not be available the next time I needed it,” Cappelletti said.

The Trump campaign’s statement said Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris “are lying and fearmongering because they have NOTHING else to offer the American people” regarding Trump’s relationship with the 2025 Project and that he has “long consistently supported states’ rights to make decisions on abortion “. Karoline Leavitt, his national press secretary, also said Trump would not sign a federal abortion ban if he returned to the White House.

Cappelletti, who worked as Planned Parenthood’s policy director before being elected to the state Senate in 2020, said she and her husband “were very excited to welcome their second child.”

Cappelletti’s name will appear on Tuesday’s ballot as she runs for re-election against Republican Greg Harris. She will continue to experience symptoms of loss, including cramping and bleeding, for the next week. However, the emotional side will likely be resolved after the elections, she added.

Her extraordinary public appeal is not about the re-election she is expected to win. Or necessarily to “politicize your sadness” by claiming that “reproductive rights were already politicized.”

Rather, her message is for undecided voters across Pennsylvania to consider voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, who has made abortion access a cornerstone of her presidential campaign.

“As a human being and as a mother, I ask: I deserve dignity and respect to make decisions that are best for me and my community.”