PITTSBURGH — In the chilly portico of the City-County Building on Monday, abortion policy became personal.
Democrats across the country seized on the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade on Monday to make sure abortion rights remain at the center of this year’s political battles, an issue that erupted in the summer of 2022 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe.
In Pittsburgh, three progressive political leaders from the region gathered on Grant Street, holding signs that read “Stop Trump’s Abortion Ban,” and talked about this year’s election cycle and what it means for the future of women’s reproductive rights. They recalled the stories of pain they’ve heard since the constitutional right to abortion was struck down and how the Dobbs decision has affected them personally.
The most moving story, however, came not from an elected official but from Kelsey Leigh, who described her experience with abortion and how it led her to advocate for reproductive rights.
She recounted conversations she had with women in Ohio and West Virginia in the days after the Dobbs decision. In those two nearby states, women faced severe restrictions, if not bans, on access to abortion. Leigh said she and other volunteers at an abortion clinic in Allegheny County spoke with dozens of scared and desperate women who had had to drive hundreds of miles to access abortion care, fearing arrest if they did so and wondering how they would pay for food and lodging.
“We need to remember what happens when we don’t vote, when we don’t pay attention to judicial nominations,” Leigh said. “And we — especially we as white women — need to reflect on the hubris of thinking that we have Roe, that we’re good.”
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In 2016, Leigh was 21 weeks pregnant when a routine ultrasound revealed that her baby was the limbs and neck were deformed. If she had continued the pregnancy to delivery, her baby would most likely not have had the ability to swallow or breathe. Its bones would have broken during delivery, no matter the method. She decided to terminate the pregnancy.
“I couldn’t and wouldn’t carry my son for another four months, knowing his life would be filled with pain and suffering,” she said. “I said goodbye before I even held him, a decision I made on my own, a decision supported by love and mercy.”
State Rep. Jessica Benham (D-Allegheny) said she was moved by the fact that women told her about the difficulties of deciding to have an abortion and “struggled with public judgment because of decisions they made, decisions that should not be subject to scrutiny because they are private.”
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, the first woman to hold that position, lamented the fact that access to abortion is now decided by political leaders and judges, not by the women whose health and lives are most at risk.
“I’m a woman in my 30s,” she said. “It’s me, my sister, my friend, going through the process of deciding if, when, and how they want to have children. And sometimes they’re deeply exciting processes, and sometimes they’re devastating, but they’re mostly private and personal decisions.”
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D-12th District) said women now have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. She listed some of the scenarios women have faced since Roe fell: “Ten-year-old rape victims forced to become parents, miscarriages that turn into sepsis, women forced to carry ectopic pregnancies to term.”
Lee and Benham said the lack of access to abortion is particularly acute for women in rural areas, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community and Black women, who already face higher maternal mortality rates.
“Forcing black women to have children is unthinkable when we have no guarantee that we will be able to keep them alive,” Lee said.
Benham wondered about her situation: She has a genetic condition that could make pregnancy risky.
“If I wanted to carry a pregnancy to term, I would want access to good reproductive health care, but as a disabled and queer person, I can’t have that guarantee,” she said.
Innamorato linked the issue to state and national politics, emphasizing the need for Democrats to maintain a majority in the state House of Representatives, Democrats to gain control of the state Senate and re-elect Democratic leaders at the federal level.
Polls show that most people disapprove of Dobbs’ decision. In a number of states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio, voters passed state initiatives that affirmed abortion rights or rejected attempts to restrict access to abortion.
“The stakes in 2024 are more than clear,” Lee said. “And they are higher than ever. In addition to defeating extremism, which [former President Donald] What Trump has initiated or has emphasized is also about stopping the takeover of our courts and elections by right-wing billionaires and dark money networks that are hell-bent on controlling us” by eroding all rights and weakening democratic institutions.
She added that it is crucial for Democrats to organize to “elect reproductive leaders at all levels to make reproductive health care a reality for all.”
