Abortion has been a defining issue in the US election. Although President Joe Biden has never been a full-throated supporter of the right to choose, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has made it a cornerstone of her campaign, DW's Ines Pohl reports.
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00:00Nancy Davis has two daughters, Summer, who is three, and Baby Star, who is just five months old.
00:07It's a bigger gap between them than she had planned.
00:10But a pregnancy between the two girls turned into a nightmare.
00:15In June 2022, she was at 10 weeks when the fetus she was carrying was diagnosed with acrania, a fatal abnormality.
00:24So I remember vividly sitting in a cold hospital room here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
00:30My doctor walked in and he said this is the worst case scenario.
00:34They normally die in utero, but if he or she makes it through birth, then he or she would die within minutes.
00:40So he recommended an abortion to ultimately protect my health.
00:45However, due to Louisiana's restrictive abortion laws, I was denied the care that I desperately needed.
00:53Nancy went public with her situation and got funding with the help of the Bridget Alliance,
00:58an organization which offers practical support for people who need an abortion.
01:04She traveled 1,400 miles to a clinic in Manhattan, New York, for the procedure.
01:11You know, having to leave your kids, leaving your family behind just to access fundamental health care,
01:18and going to a foreign place where I don't know anybody, you know, like it was one of the scariest things of my life.
01:27And I was emotional the entire time, like on a plane, at the clinic.
01:33She established a foundation in her own name to support others facing similar situations.
01:41We leave Louisiana in the deep south and head for Ohio.
01:46Here in the Midwest, access to abortion has been sharply limited since the Supreme Court decision, but it's still possible.
01:57People like this camp outside this clinic in Dayton, wanting to persuade women to not have abortions.
02:08The clinic even has security because of people protesting outside.
02:14So as election comes, you'll see more and more people doing that.
02:19Dr. Katherine Romanos has been carrying out abortions here in Ohio since 2013 and now sees many people coming from other states.
02:30I think that's the intention of a lot of these laws, that people will be confused, that people will be scared, and that there will be less abortions.
02:40We see patients from Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas.
02:45Crossing state lines to get health care is incredibly stigmatizing.
02:52An abortion is a lonely decision as it is.
02:56So I think people who might have told a friend or a family member if they were staying at home for their care,
03:03maybe are less likely to do so if they're traveling because it feels like they're doing something wrong.
03:11We ask her about the election.
03:15I think it's not good news for anyone with a uterus or anyone who enjoys bodily autonomy if Donald Trump is elected.
03:25I think he's been really cagey about his own opinions, but I think the people around him are very clear that they want abortion to be inaccessible.
03:41That potential future worries Nancy Davis.
03:47When I think about my children going through the same thing that I did, or my daughters going through the same thing that I did,
03:54it makes me angry, it makes me scared of what that looks like, and it's very frustrating.
04:06And that's one of the reasons that I advocate very, very hard to prevent my children from going through it,
04:14to prevent your kids from going through it, and future generations to come from going through the same thing.
04:22For Nancy's daughters, the choice of what they can do with their bodies may be decided on election day.