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On Monday, while campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama delivered a rallying cry to the men of America: The lives of the women you love are on the line this election.
Since the Dobbs decision, many have come forward with stories about the harrowing experience of being pregnant in post-Roe America.
During an event in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the former first lady spoke directly to the men in the crowd and explained how strict abortion bans could put their girlfriends in legal jeopardy, leave their mothers without access to live-saving cancer screenings, and make their daughters terrified to call the doctor if they experience complications during an unexpected pregnancy.For some across America, those hypothetical situations have already become a reality. Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, many women have come forward with stories about the harrowing experience of being pregnant in post-Roe America. On Tuesday, “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski sat down with three of those women to discuss how Republican-backed abortion bans left them fighting for their lives.
In November 2022, Deborah Dorbert, a mother from Florida, was five months pregnant with her second child when she found out her baby had a rare condition that would likely cause death soon after delivery. Due to the state’s strict abortion ban, doctors refused to allow Dorbert to terminate the pregnancy, forcing her to carry the baby to term.
The Florida mother spoke to Brzezinski about the physical and mental toll those months took on her and her family.
“I fell into a deep depression and was starting to have suicidal ideation,” Dorbert said. “I endured physical pain that was worse than labor itself and I fell into a deep, dark place, both physically and mentally, trying to understand [and] prepare myself for delivery — because I met life and death all in the same day.”
Dorbert shared how she was forced to explain the situation to her 4-year-old son. “He is asking questions: What is an angel? Where did his brother go? What is heaven? Does he have toys? And I’m telling him, I don’t know.”Kaitlyn Joshua, a mother from Louisiana, was also denied care in 2022 due to her state’s abortion restrictions. Kaitlyn and her husband, Landon, were excited to welcome another baby to their family but unfortunately, just over 10 weeks into her pregnancy, she suffered from a miscarriage.
Joshua said two emergency rooms in the state refused to offer her care because the procedures she would need to manage her miscarriage are also used for elective abortions. Instead, a nurse offered to keep the mother in her prayers.
“I am a Christian woman, a woman of faith, and, in that moment, I did not want or need prayers. I needed access to abortion care,” she told Brzezinski.
Amanda Zurawski, a Texas mother who made headlines for suing the state in 2023 after she was denied an abortion, also joined the panel. She told Dorbert and Joshua that she was proud of them for speaking up and acknowledged the pain of their experiences will never truly go away.
“I am a Christian woman, a woman of faith, and in that moment, I did not want or need prayers. I needed access to abortion care.”
“These conversations are not easy,” she said to Brzezinski. “They don’t get easier. They will never get easier. We have suffered enormous grief, trauma, loss — those things stay with you forever.”At the end of the interview, Brzezinski asked the women why they chose to speak out now, in the closing days of the election.
“I’m speaking out to share my son’s legacy,” Dorbert said. “To help bring the change so no one has to go through what I went through.”
Joshua added: “For me as a woman of color, as a Black woman, I have to say that I am speaking out for all the women of color that look like me. They don’t necessarily want to be on the front lines and share their story — and why should they have to? That’s why I’m here, to make sure that I’m amplifying their voices.”
“I’m helping people connect the dots,” she continued. “And understand that this too could be you if we don’t do what we need to do on Nov. 5.”
Zurawski then echoed the words of the former first lady, “For those folks who think that this might be niche, you’re going to care when it’s your mother, your sister, your wife, your aunt. We need to stop the suffering.”