U.S. Congresswomen Summer Lee (D-12th District) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) gathered Tuesday in Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood to spotlight Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on reproductive rights and warn against the reelection of former President Donald Trump.
Both Lee and Pressley have endorsed Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Harris has been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights and abortion access before and after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Bri Erskine, a Pittsburgh resident who moved from Nashville after a nearly 50-year-old law guaranteeing nationwide abortion rights was overturned, recounted how health complications led her to support Harris’s presidency. Erskine struggled with life-threatening weighty periods, blood loss and clotting similar to those of miscarriages, and received hours of blood transfusions in emergency rooms.
Getting an IUD, she said, saved her life. But when a draft of the Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe was leaked to the press, Erskine had to consider whether her condition would still allow her to access reproductive health care. Because she was traveling for work, her doctor pulled out a map of the United States and said, “Tell me where you work, and I’ll tell you how to stay safe.”
When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Erskine moved to Pennsylvania.
“I literally left my home of seven years to make sure I could always safely access the health care I needed,” she said.
In May, former President Donald Trump was he was asked if he supported restrictions on birth control. He responded that it was something his administration was “looking at,” that states would have different policies, and that he would release a comprehensive policy on the matter. Later that day, he posted on his social media platform Truth Social that he would never advocate for restrictions or bans on birth control.
At a rally Tuesday, reproductive rights advocate Sydney Etheredge called Trump “the architect of abortion bans,” adding that it was “just the beginning.” Etheredge warned about Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page conservative policy blueprint for a Republican president that advocates for a strict abortion ban and an end to the sale of abortion pills.
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Trump has dismissed Project 2025 as reflecting a potential second-term agenda, but Etheredge linked it to Trump and J.D. Vance’s presidency, calling it Trump’s “Project 2025 agenda.”
“We all know that actions speak louder than words,” she said. “The truth is that while Trump and Vance try to distance themselves from Project 2025, Trump was a supporter of a nationwide abortion ban when he was president.”
Although Trump had previously advocated for a nationwide ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy during his presidency, he later stated that he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban into law if re-elected.
Lee delivered a passionate speech about Pennsylvania’s role as a sanctuary state, black maternal disease rates and working-class access to reproductive health care.
“We are at a crossroads right now where we have to choose what kind of nation we want to be, what kind of nation we are going to be,” Lee said. “Every single one of us in this room has not only the opportunity but the responsibility to build that nation.”
She recalled her time as a campaign organizer for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and said she worked 100 hours a week making phone calls.
“This year we woke up and had the Trump presidency,” Lee said. “Then the wheels started turning. There are things they did that will take generations to undo. Let’s not let them do more. Let’s not let them finish the job.”
Pressley began her speech by telling a story about her mother, a “supervoter” who emphasized the importance of supporting your local community.
“I voted with her, and she turned to me and said, ‘Never forget that we are powerful.’ I believed her then and I believe her now,” she said.
She then turned her attention to her 16-year-old stepdaughter, Cora, calling herself a “proud bonus mom” after marrying Cora’s father, Conan Harris. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Pressley wondered what that meant for Cora.
“I was sitting in the stands at my eighth-grade graduation and immediately felt a strong fear that my daughter would grow up in a country where she had fewer rights than I did.” she said. “Following my mother’s example and fighting for my daughter’s future, I couldn’t be more proud to endorse Kamala Harris for president of the United States.”
She has improved Harris’ record on protecting reproductive rights as California’s attorney general and senator. Most recently, in March, Harris was first vice president to visit an abortion clinic.
“Let’s take a moment to imagine a truly just America,” Pressley said. “In a truly just America, bodily autonomy is enshrined in law, and access to care is not determined by ZIP code, immigration status, income or national origin. Let me say this: a just America is possible.”
Responding to questions after her speech, Pressley confirmed that she believes a Harris presidency is necessary to protect reproductive rights in the United States.
“Under Kamala Harris in the White House, we have a Department of Health and Human Services that wants to preserve our access to abortion care, which is health care, and also expand access,” she said. “In the Trump White House and with a Trump Supreme Court armed, there is no access to abortion care, which is health care. Again, this is about managing miscarriages. This is about bodily autonomy.”
In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, but Lee said a Trump White House could mean the end of Pennsylvania’s status as a haven for women from other states with restrictive abortion laws.
“You can’t rely on your state, on your state legislature, because if we can’t step up at the federal level to provide abortion care, that means every single state is going to feel the effects of this,” Lee said.
