NASHVILLE, Tenn. – For decades, only three people knew that Gloria Johnson had an abortion.
But a year of watching women and doctors agonize under Tennessee’s strict abortion ban lit a fire under the longtime Democrat. She watched in dismay as her Republican colleagues in the General Assembly dismissed concerns that the law was harming women. Many GOP lawmakers argued that only on rare occasions was an abortion necessary to save a life.
So, without advance notice to her legislative team or her family, the then-60-year-old state representative appeared before a Republican-controlled House panel in March 2023 and testified about the abortion she had at age 21. miscarriage, she said, when she was a newly married college student after being diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm. This likely would have killed her if she did nothing, but it could have harmed the baby if Johnson received the treatment needed to save his own life.
“The reality is that we are in a situation where people act as if stories like mine are one in a million, when in fact they happen every day,” Johnson said in a recent interview, nearly a year after his dramatic testimony.
Johnson, now running as a Democrat for U.S. Senate against Republican Marsha Blackburn, has joined the growing ranks of progressive candidates choosing to tell their own stories about abortion. They are doing so more frequently in states that banned abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Democrats think that even in many heavily Republican states, voters support their view that these personal choices should be left to women and that showing voters how difficult their own decisions were will help make that argument.
Recent elections suggest that the fight for abortion rights may have real value. Statewide ballot measures supporting reproductive rights have gained a lot since the high court ruling in Dobbs v. Board of Education. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, including in Republican Party strongholds like Kansas and Kentucky.
Reproductive rights advocates celebrated last month after Marilyn Lands won a special election in Alabama, reclaiming a legislative seat long held by Republicans. Currently, Alabama prohibits abortion at all stages of pregnancy, almost without exception.
Lands has made abortion rights central to her campaign, releasing a video in which she reveals she had an abortion after tests determined her baby had a genetic disease and could not survive.
Lands drew a comparison to Alyssa Gonzales, a woman who was denied the same treatment just a few months after Dobbs, despite having almost the same diagnosis as Lands. Gonzales traveled 10 hours out of state to Washington, D.C., to get the help she needed.
“Our media consultant said, ‘Milyn, you don’t need to do that, the issue is compelling enough on its own,’” Lands said. “I think they wanted to make sure I was really comfortable with it, and I was. … It was absolutely the right thing to do.”
In most cases, however, electoral victories have been slower for pro-choice candidates than when they are framed in a ballot measure. Measures legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding Medicaid also won in conservative states, but didn’t translate into many victories for the candidates supporting them.
That leaves political experts watching races like Johnson’s Senate bid in Tennessee to see if telling more personal stories will make a difference.
“If these candidates continue to be successful, it will show us once again that people are dissatisfied with state abortion policies, but also that abortion is a big enough deal for them that they might vote for someone who otherwise they wouldn’t vote,” said Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis.
Heather Williams, chairwoman of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to state legislatures, said Lands’ victory was a “political earthquake in Alabama.”
“In red states, when candidates share these stories, it helps voters see that there is someone who is advocating for the things they care about, who shares their experiences,” she said.
While most of the candidates and lawmakers who have shared stories about abortion are Democrats, Republican Sam Brown has chosen to revisit his wife’s abortion as he runs for a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada. Earlier this year, Brown’s wife spoke openly about the abortion she had before the two met. Brown said he would oppose a federal abortion ban while supporting the current Nevada law that protects the right to an abortion up to 24 weeks — roughly the national standard in Roe v. Wade. Wade.
Even before abortion rights were overturned, there were signs that politicians’ personal stories could make a difference.
In Georgia, Democrat Shea Roberts first ran for the state House in 2018 but lost to Republican Deborah Silcox. In 2020, Roberts shared her abortion story while running once again and won.
Roberts began speaking out about her decision to terminate her non-viable pregnancy — first in front of small groups of voters and then at news conferences. She said she owed her victory to that decision.
“I regret not being braver the first time,” she said.
At the federal level, Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Pramila Jayapal of Washington state and Barbara Lee of California have openly shared their abortion stories since speaking about them at a 2021 House committee hearing on abortion rights.
And as the future of Roe v. Wade was at stake following the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft ruling, Democratic Reps. Marie Newman of Illinois and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin also spoke openly about their abortions.
In Arizona, state Sen. Eva Burch told fellow lawmakers on the Senate floor last month that she was going to have an abortion because her pregnancy was no longer viable. In a nearly 10-minute speech, the 43-year-old first-term lawmaker, who previously worked as a nurse at a women’s health clinic, described a “difficult journey” with fertility and a previous miscarriage.
Burch criticized Arizona’s restrictions as out of reach, saying state law requires an ultrasound her doctor didn’t order. She also said she received bad information about alternative treatments.
“I think a lot of people would like to be able to tell their stories, but they either don’t have the platform or they don’t want to and they shouldn’t,” Burch said later. “If this is something I can do for people, I will do it in whatever capacity I can.”
In Wisconsin, Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an obstetrician and gynecologist who performs abortions, entered the race last week for a congressional seat in a Republican district. Minnesota State Senator Kelly Morrison, a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist, is running for Congress and promoting her support for abortion rights.
Back in Tennessee, which severely limits exemptions to its abortion ban, Gloria Johnson isn’t the only candidate sharing her story.
At 19 weeks pregnant, Allie Phillips discovered she had a non-viable pregnancy, but did not meet the requirements to have an abortion in the state, despite the many complications she was experiencing. Her account of traveling outside of Tennessee with her husband to obtain the services she needed was circulated widely on social media.
Phillips has since joined a group of women challenging the legality of Tennessee’s abortion law. She announced her candidacy for the state House against a Republican who she said downplayed her story when she met with him last year.
Johnson says reproductive rights are a priority for Democrats and Republicans. She knows Tennessee voters haven’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in nearly 20 years, but she thinks being open will help her connect with anyone who cares about how women are treated.
“I am absolutely differentiating myself. I am letting you know that I am a woman who cares about women’s reproductive choice,” she said. “For me, it’s about equality and rights.”
___
Fernando reported from Chicago.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
