Baton Rouge reproductive rights activist speaking at opening night of Democratic National Convention
CHICAGO — A Baton Rouge reproductive rights activist is set to take the stage Monday evening as the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Chicago less than 80 days before a presidential election where issues like abortion will be key talking points for both candidates.
Kaitlyn Joshua is one of three women traveling the nation with the Harris for President Campaign's Reproductive Rights Tour.
Joshua said that she took up her stance as an activist after she was denied care in two hospitals after finding out she was having a miscarriage 11 weeks into her pregnancy in the fall of 2022. She said she wants to use her story on this national stage "to bring awareness to the direct impacts of the abortion ban on mothers trying to access basic maternal health care in the most dire of times."
At an April rally she organized at the Louisiana State Capitol, Joshua also said that medically difficult pregnancies are something women in Louisiana are facing at an alarming rate.
"Black women are three times more likely to die during childbirth and labor, through the pregnancy period and even through the post-partum period, so it's something we have to turn our focus to," she said at the time.
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Joshua will join Texas' Amanda Zurawski and Kentucky's Hadley Duvall at 9 p.m. on Monday as part of the Democrats' opening salvo at this year's convention.