On Monday evening, three women are scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) to report how abortion laws in their states have negatively affected their health following pregnancy complications.

The women want to use their time on the DNC stage to highlight how the end of Roe v. Wade (which was overturned after former President Donald Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court) has negatively impacted pregnant women across the country, not only in terms of their ability to have autonomy over their own bodies, but also by denying them the ability to seek medical care that may be essential to protecting their health and lives.

Kaitlyn Joshua is one of the three women who will speak. After suffering bleeding and severe pain from a miscarriage in 2022 at 10 or 11 weeks’ gestation, Joshua was turned away by two hospitals in Louisiana that would not perform a procedure to remove the fetus, even though it had stopped growing at about seven or eight weeks’ gestation.

Abortions are illegal in Louisiana at any stage of pregnancy, and because the fetus still had a weak heartbeat, her doctors did not want to perform an intervention to help her, Joshua said.

Joshua has said that early in her pregnancy, she was also told that she could not have her first doctor’s visit until much later, around 12 weeks, because state laws limit doctors’ involvement in prenatal health. In an interview with NPRJoshua recalled her doctor telling her that many miscarriages occurred in the first few weeks and doctors did not want to be held accountable or investigated for treating these miscarriages – even though such treatment in these early stages can harm both the pregnant woman and the fetus.

Joshua appeared in campaign ads against the Republican presidential candidate and described her experience as “a direct result of the repeal of Donald Trump’s Roe v. Wade.“

Hadley Duvall is another woman scheduled to speak at the DNC on Monday. When she was younger, she was repeatedly raped by her stepfather. Duvall has spoken in the past about how she became pregnant at age 12. She suffered a miscarriage, but called “the idea of ​​politicians forcing me to give birth to my rapist’s baby” “unconscionable.” She added that Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who is calling for a nationwide ban on abortion, don’t care “about girls in that situation.”

Amanda Zurawski will also speak about her pregnancy on Monday. At 18 weeks, she went into premature labor and was told her fetus was no longer viable. However, due to Texas’ strict abortion laws, she was unable to have an abortion despite being at high risk of infection, and was sent home by her doctors.

Zurawski developed sepsis and nearly died twice during the ordeal. Because of what she went through, she is now less likely to be able to have children in the future. She detailed her experience in a heartbreaking commercial for President Joe Biden when he was the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. She was also the president’s guest during his State of the Union address earlier this year.

Zurawski and 19 other women sued the state of Texas to get a more precise definition of when abortions could be allowed. State law allows abortions only when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger. In practice, however, states with such standards often restrict abortion services at that time as well, as was the case in Zurawski’s case.

The Texas Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Zurawski and her co-plaintiffs because it saw no need for such a change in the law.

More than two years after the dismantling of the Roe, Abortion and other reproductive rights will be a central issue in the presidential election.

A recent economist/YouGov poll found that abortion is the fifth most important issue in this year’s election, after inflation, jobs and the economy, immigration and health care. Still, with 7 percent of respondents overall naming abortion their most important issue and the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump so close, how people vote on abortion could tip the balance in this race. The issue is also the second most important issue for women and the third most important for young voters, two key voting groups Democrats are trying to court in this fall’s election, according to the poll.

Several states also plan to put an abortion rights initiative on the ballot in November. At least eight states in the US will ask voters to decide whether to protect or expand abortion rights, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Nevada and South Dakota.