Pennsylvanian voters to decide whether women will have autonomy over their bodies

“Pennsylvania is going to be the difference between a national abortion ban or the opportunity to enact federal legislation to restore reproductive freedom in this country,” says CEO and President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund Alexis McGill Johnson in reference to the state’s election outcome.

To illustrate the very human consequences of this decision, the reproductive justice movement shares stories of real people denied the basic human right to make decisions about their own bodies, and the tragic outcomes. 

During a recent weekend in Bryn Mawr, PA, local Democrats hosted a screening of Zurawski v. Texas, which follows the stories of Amanda Zurawski, Samantha Casiano, and Dr. Austin Dennard as they seek medical abortions in Texas, navigating hospitals, courtrooms and funerals in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision under former President Donald Trump to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

The film serves as a reminder that at the heart of the movement for reproductive justice is centering the lives of real people. Lives have been lost under Trump’s abortion ban, and low-income BIPOC women like Amber Thurman and Candi Miller are disproportionately affected by lack of access due to financial strain and baked-in racism in the medical care world. Women and others are experiencing life-threatening medical complications leading to long-lasting physical and emotional trauma.  

After Amanda Zurawski’s water broke prematurely, she was denied immediate care and became septic while waiting for an abortion and nearly died. 

Samantha Casiano was forced to carry her baby to term only to have her die four hours after birth. Her family and small children had to witness a funeral a week after labor, all after being denied money by a state caseworker for a proper funeral and being shamed for asking for government support. 

Dr. Austin Dennard, a doctor of Obstetrics and Gynecology working in Dallas, Texas learned she was pregnant with a long-desired baby. At her 11-week scan, her baby was diagnosed with anencephaly, a lethal anomaly. Yet because there was a heartbeat, she was forced to travel outside of her state for a safe abortion.  

To discuss the public health crisis and the role Pennsylvania plays in the facilitation of freedom over surveillance, Keystone Newsroom sat down with Dr. Austin Dennard, CEO and President of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill, State Senator Amanda Cappelletti, State Representative Mary Jo Daley, and Philanthropist Christina Weiss Lurie to learn from their stories and seek pathways forward from their experiences.  

Dennard emotionally thanked Pennsylvania, “for providing me the care that I needed. Because of that care, I was able to have a baby.” As an OBGYN, Dennard is not only dealing with her own emotional trauma but talks about the fears shared by doctors and patients.  

”In states like Texas, you really have no rights over pregnancy, over that baby, until it’s in your arms,” she said, adding, “Women are afraid to get pregnant. Women are asking for permanent sterilization.”  

Dennard explained that vigilante laws in Texas render doctors afraid to talk about or even say the word abortion in fear of having their licenses revoked. If doctors don’t abide by the law, they can be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and even put in jail. 

While abortion is legal in Pennsylvania, access can still be a challenge. Both State Representative Daley and State Senator Cappelletti have a personal stake in the fight for reproductive justice. They serve as co-chairs in the PA Women’s Health Caucus. They are mothers to daughters. Cappelletti experienced two miscarriages and was the first state senator to ever have a child during their tenure in office. She spoke about how there are only 17 clinics left in an “incredibly large Commonwealth.” 

In the western parts of Pennsylvania, doctors are seeing an influx of patients fleeing red states for abortion care. Daley said there were more than 145 abortion clinics in Pennsylvania when Roe v. Wade became federal law. Now there are more maternity care deserts, and maternal mortality rates have gone up.

When philanthropist Christina Weiss Lurie watched Zurawski v. Texas, she said that her heart was broken. 

“I couldn’t believe that women’s healthcare was so undermined,” she says.  

McGill Johnson agrees and turns to the broader political threat posed by a possible second Trump administration. She warned about Project 2025, a detailed conservative strategy that outlines measures to severely restrict reproductive rights nationwide.

“We know that if Donald Trump and JD Vance get elected, that they will enforce a national abortion ban and the reality is they do not need federal legislation to do that,” says McGill Johnson. “Project 2025 is a playbook for fascism. It is a playbook for total control over our bodies, to bring in a pregnancy czar, someone who will track the periods of women potentially getting pregnant and monitor their pregnancies.”  

“Project 2025 also targets the Health and Human Services, and wants to disband the agency that helps protect pharmaceuticals and access to contraception,” she adds. 

In a cheerful transition, McGill Johnson says, “When we elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, we are going to be in a new path, a new place of possibility, because we will have chosen freedom, and we will have chosen democracy. We are going to pass federal legislation that will help us restore reproductive freedom, and we are going to put ourselves on the long game to ensure we save our democracy.” 

In this election, hope is alive in the courage of women like Dr. Dennard and the plaintiffs in Zurawski v. Texas, and those who have yet to be platformed, who refuse to be governed by fear. 

Alexis McGill Johnson shares a quote by Alice Walker that guides her work. 

“‘Hope is a woman who lost her fear, and we are unafraid, we are unapologetic.’ We are out here ready to be ungovernable, because we will not let anybody take our freedoms away. And every time I see young people out here, every time I see multi-generational folks who have been in this movement and fight forever, I realize that that lack of fear and that courage and bravery is going to get us through.”

The message is clear: Vote.