I’m very glad that she’s doing this, and even more upset that she is in the position where she has to.
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune
Amanda Zurawski didn’t want to go into politics. She wanted a baby girl.
Her name would have been Willow. But when Zurwaski was 18 weeks pregnant, her water broke. The fetus wouldn’t survive, but, citing Texas’ abortion laws, her doctors refused to terminate the pregnancy until she eventually developed sepsis three days later.
After nearly dying Zurawski sued the state over its abortion laws and lost, but captured the attention of the nation. Now, she’s at the forefront of Democrats’ battle against anti-abortion legislation and leaning into a new and unexpected path for herself, born out of an anger over her own experience and a desire for change.
“My future is going to be in the political world. I just don’t know what it looks like yet,” said Zurawski, who quit her job earlier this year to focus on the presidential campaign. She’s not ruling out running for office herself.
As Democrats continue to lean into abortion as one of the central pillars of their messaging this cycle, Zurawski has ballooned into one of the party’s most prominent messengers on reproductive rights. She has crisscrossed the country on behalf of the Democratic presidential campaign telling her story of losing her pregnancy and confronting Texas’ restrictive abortion laws. She spoke during counterprogramming to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and on the main stage of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. She was a delegate for Texas as the party formally nominated Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“I’m very proud of everything I’ve done. I’m very hopeful, and I think that we are making change,” Zurawski said in an interview last week amid a packed schedule at the DNC. But she added, “I would trade my personal platform to have Willow.”
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There’s more, so read the rest. I don’t have anything insightful to add. I just hope people listen to her and heed what she says. And I thank her for her service.