Still Here: Three Years Post-Dobbs

On the anniversary of the Supreme Court case that overturned abortion rights, I'm reflecting on where we have been and how far we have to go.

The last time that I sat in the Capitol to attend a hearing on abortion rights, it was September 2024. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and her pro-choice colleagues were exposing the insidious plans in Project 2025 and the impact on women’s rights. It was a sobering event where patients, providers, and activists told harrowing stories about women who were harmed or even died from lack of access to abortion care. But despite the heaviness of the hearing, I was hopeful. The 2024 presidential election was still in the future, and the Kamala Harris campaign was going strong. Now, nine months later (what ironic timing), I’m sitting in another hearing. Only this time, we are five months deep into Donald Trump’s second presidency, the very thing that Congresswoman Pressley warned about in the fall.

GOP Weaponization of TFMR

One of the most offensive messages that Republicans rely heavily upon in their dismantling of reproductive rights is the myth of the “late-term abortion.” They constructed a narrative about women who simply decide late in pregnancy that motherhood is not for them and murder viable babies. It’s a ridiculous lie, and it completely disregards the pain of choosing termination for medical reasons, or TFMR. TFMR is a decision that pregnant patients make when their pregnancy is not compatible with life, either theirs or their baby’s. It can be necessary at any stage of pregnancy, including the second and third trimester. This is where Republicans focused their hateful rhetoric.

In the September 2024 hearing, I met a woman who had to make the difficult decision to TFMR. Her name was Gracie Ladd. When I saw her in the room, she was soft spoken but strong, bravely telling the story about the loss of her second son, Connor, as she sat visibly pregnant with her third child. She was from Michigan, and she discovered in her second trimester with Connor that he had a lethal disorder, meaning he would not live after birth. She and her husband made the difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy, the most humane decision for both Connor and Gracie as her health was now at risk the longer that she carried the pregnancy.

But she was just past the 20-week mark, and that is where Wisconsin restricted abortion access. She and her husband were forced to drive 100 miles away to a doctor who they had never met just to get the treatment that Gracie needed. This is not the picture that the GOP paints with their talk of late-term and, the even more nonsensical, “post-birth” abortions. They don’t show people like Gracie, the mother of three very wanted babies who had to go through one of the hardest things a mother could ever go through. They don’t show reality; they distort it for their own personal self-interests.

I couldn’t help but get angrier the longer that I sat in the hearing because I remember what it was like when I was 30 weeks pregnant with my own very wanted baby, waiting to see if he had a lethal disorder. I remember sitting in the office of the fetal medicine specialist, thinking about the fully-finished nursery and the car seat, unused and ready to be installed. I remember being told that I was lucky in a way if I had to TFMR because I lived near one of the few specialists in the country who was equipped to handle a third-trimester termination. I remember the relief and tears when I found out that my son was not incompatible with life, and I delivered a healthy baby seven weeks later. My heart aches for women like Gracie who didn’t get lucky like I did, who had to say goodbye, and who have to endure Republicans misusing their pain for a disgusting narrative.

More Births, Less Care

Sitting in today’s hearing, I’m watching Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, talk about how Republicans are forcing births but not ensuring care. They are gutting health care while simultaneously putting women in danger. This is why the abortion bans are rooted in nothing but cruelty. To force women to carry unwanted pregnancies, deny them proper care, and gut programs that provide services like food assistance, education, and childcare, makes it clear that there is nothing pro-life about what the GOP is doing. It’s just anti-choice.

During the hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that the cuts to health care “will serve as a backdoor ban on abortions in the states where abortion is legal.” The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” has a lot of ugly effects on the funding for clinics and services as well as restrictions on Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance plans. So it’s not just an attack on Medicaid but also on private health insurance that people pay for out of their own pockets. It’s not about fiscal responsibility or the “fraud, waste, and abuse” that they pretend to be searching for. It's just about government control of private health decisions.

Earlier in the day, I spoke to Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA), and he used one word to describe what Republicans are doing: stupid. As I watched this 80-year-old white congressman talk passionately about the need to ensure that women control their own bodies, children are fed, families are housed, and everyone has health care, I had to agree with him that it must be stupidity. We often talk about age, race, and gender playing a factor into the ignorance folks have with these issues, but Rep. Garamendi proves that is not an excuse. This isn’t a matter of not understanding but rather refusing to understand. Again, stupidity.

A Dangerous Territory

During the hearing, several people acknowledged the horrible loss of Minnesota State Representative, Melissa Hortman. She was assassinated on June 14, 2025 in a hate-filled and targeted attack by an anti-choice, MAGA evangelical who had her name on a list. The list included abortion advocates and providers across the country. It included people sitting in that room with me today. I looked around, and almost every person in the room was a woman. I felt emotional as one of Melissa’s friends — an abortion provider — spoke about the impact of her loss. The dangers that women face right now, in the fight for our autonomy, are monumental.

We face the danger of what happened to Adriana Smith, a Black woman whose name was spoken more than once today as we remember that she was used as an incubator for a fetus after being denied the health care that she needed to live.

We face the danger of increases in cervical cancer, breast cancer, and STIs if Planned Parenthood and other clinic funding is gutted in an effort to punish them for daring to provide abortion care.

We face the danger of women being forced to carry pregnancies, risking their health, and losing their autonomy.

We face the danger of being on a list drafted by an extremist who sees women as so disposable that they deserve to be murdered for fighting for equality.

Yet, here we are.

Staying Hopeful

I spoke to a lot of people today, but the person who I was most excited to see was Gracie. She has since given birth to her third child, a beautiful girl whose pictures she happily showed me. She came to the Capitol to once again share her story and Connor’s story. I asked her what keeps her going, and she said, “Hearing the stories from all the other women here.” That resonates with me because the most frightening part of what this administration is doing is trying to make us feel alone in our fight. They are doing their best to make us feel weak, scared, and isolated. But the truth is that we are the opposite of all of that. Today, I saw nothing but strong, courageous women, all together and supporting each other.

This is the path forward, and we are still here.