Enough Memes, Let’s Talk Policy: Abortion Rights Took Center Stage At The DNC

Nearly 50,000 people packed into Chicago’s United Center for the 2024 Democratic National Convention. The words “our fight for reproductive freedom” were splashed across the biggest screen on the main stage. In front of the block lettering, a Black woman named Kaitlyn Joshua stood and told the story of how abortion bans left her bleeding out and fighting for her life eleven weeks into her pregnancy. While preparing for her two-year-old’s birthday party, Joshua began to miscarry but doctors at two emergency rooms turned her away because of statewide bans. “No woman should experience what I endured,” she said on the first night of the Convention, “but too many have.” Kaitlyn Joshua was joined by other women from Texas and Kentucky who shared their personal experiences not being able to access healthcare, both before and after the repeal of Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. The message from the evening was clear: abortion access is on the ballot and the time for true reproductive justice is now. 

If you’ve been following the DNC on social media, Joshua’s speech may not have come across your timelines. Celebrity cameos, memes, and Michelle Obama soundbites have been dominating the discourse. But reproductive rights need to be at the center of the Democrats’ platform and activists are fighting to make sure no one is left behind. That means fighting for the young woman who needs an affordable and safe abortion, the transgender man who is starting a family, the couple struggling with fertility, the non-binary person seeking gender-affirming healthcare, the sexual assault survivor who deserves agency over their body, the mother who can’t afford another, the migrating parents and their children separated at the border, intergenerational Palestinian families, and everyone in between. 

Renee Bracey Sherman is a reproductive justice activist and co-author of the forthcoming book Liberating Abortion: Claiming Our History, Sharing Our Stories, and Building the Reproductive Future We Deserve who remembers a time not so long ago when things looked very different. Ahead of the 2016 Presidential election, Bracey Sherman led the #AskAboutAbortion campaign because moderators at Democratic primary debates refused to even bring up abortion access or wrestle with policy commitments. “I feel so glad to see that that ideology has shifted,” Bracey Sherman said of her time in Chicago this past week. “There were abortion storytellers — including abortion storytellers of color — taking the stage, sharing their stories, and getting rousing applause from the audience. That was something that we've been told couldn't be done.”

The Convention week kicked off with several panels and events hosted by My Body PAC, the first Black woman founded political action committee centered around reproductive justice. My Body PAC’s mission is to invest in down-ballot races and mobilize young voters to support the local fight for bodily autonomy and that work made quite the splash at this week’s Democratic National Convention. They hosted a series of activations to remind the Democratic base that this is a choice election and the future of reproductive justice is in our hands. “Black women historically have not had access to the capital and access needed to lead this conversation,” noted My Body PAC founder Ericka Claudio. “On day one of the DNC, it was important that we center Black women candidates up and down the ballot and Black women’s experiences.”

The first of My Body PAC’s events, all located at the DNC’s Democracy House, was a ‘Brunch for Choice’ panel event. Artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez moderated a conversation with Tennessee State Senators London Lamar and Charlane Oliver. An abortion ban called “Tennessee’s Life Protection Act” has restricted abortions statewide with only a handful of exceptions. Both Lamar and Oliver shared their abortion and miscarriage stories in a moment of vulnerability that gave way to a larger discussion on the fight for bodily autonomy. The panel provided a chance to dig into the impact and ramifications of legislation like this and just how urgent it is that we offer women and gender marginalized people better options than our current status quo. 

During the brunch, My Body PAC also unveiled their first slate of states they’ll be investing in — including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, and Arizona — highlighting candidates in these areas committed to advancing reproductive justice and protecting bodily autonomy. “It’s really important to be empowering our state and local leaders with this issue because the Supreme Court has made their decision on this issue,” said Claudio. “This is a local fight and democracy is won at a local level.” A late night after party that evening served as both a fundraiser and an unapologetic space for young people to celebrate their bodies in a Convention mood that tends to lean more formal. Unbridled joy was central, mirroring the playful tone that My Body PAC leans into when talking about abortion and electoral politics. This is serious work and that doesn’t mean we should surrender to a doomsday mindset or Handmaid's Tale comparisons. “We need more investments in longterm cultural engagement and bringing people closer to this issue,” Claudio reflected. 

Protest art and quippy slogans have consumed Chicago including a popular one: “Roe Roe Roe Your Vote” in reference to Roe v. Wade which was repealed in 2022. The phrase is catchy but focused on what was without a clear path to what can be unburdened by what has been, as Kamala Harris famously retorts. “The conversation about abortion at the DNC is still centered on what the Republicans are doing rather than what Democrats are offering,” says Renee Bracey Sherman about some of the shirts and posters she’s seen. “The conversation is still a decade behind where we need it to be and I think the American public is ready for a visionary conversation about abortion.”

At a DNC event hosted by Family Values @ Work Action, elected officials, convention delegates, and national activists emphasized the need for a culture of care for parents, children, disabled people, and other currently neglected communities. “We all deserve the ability to care for ourselves and our loved ones without risking our livelihood,” said Cherita Ellens, President and CEO of Women Employed. “But across the country, too many of us — especially low-paid women and women of color — don't have that basic right.” Monifa Bandele, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of MomsRising Action, said, “The United States is one of the only nations in the world without a national standard for paid family and medical leave, has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality, and is seeing that number rise. If women can’t care for themselves and receive the recovery time they need, it puts them in danger, and it puts their families in danger of losing them.”

People have abortion access top of mind but Bracey Sherman reminds us that at the end of the day reproductive justice includes a wide range of issues like earning enough to be able to raise your family, quality and affordable housing, healthy food, preventative healthcare, and more. Bracey Sherman wants to see Democrats champion reproductive justice — the framework, not the buzzword. Abortion is still discussed in silos when it should be tied to other mainstream issues like the economy and healthcare. On top of that, abortion and family planning care has remained inaccessible to most who need it even before 2023. Despite thinly veiled federal protections, statewide restrictions and limited availability across the South and Midwest ensure that working class people of color are less likely to obtain the healthcare they deserve. “Roe was the bare minimum. Roe was broken,” Bracey Sherman continued. “You're saying let's go back to the bare minimum and that's not inspiring to me.” 

Access to abortion and the ability to raise children in safe and healthy communities should not be at jeopardy every four years. We need and deserve a real plan forward to not only codify abortion access but to invest in the infrastructure and frontline workers needed to make family planning readily available to all who need it. Renee Bracey Sherman wants people of all ages and backgrounds to wonder aloud what could be possible if we had more robust reproductive justice conversations ten years ago. “Where would we be?” We can’t go back in time but there’s always time to course correct. Where can we be in November of this year, January of next year, and several years down the line?