Congress Is Losing Another Lawmaker Who Shared Their Abortion Story

Abortion rights advocates and lawmakers are concerned they are losing allies who personally understand the issue as they prepare to guard against the anti-abortion movement’s next targets.

Rep. Cori Bush testifies about making her decision to have an abortion.
Rep. Cori Bush testified about having an abortion after being raped as a teen. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Just days before Rep. Cori Bush lost her primary, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark lauded her as “a leading voice” on reproductive health access, during a roundtable with abortion rights advocates in Bush’s district in Missouri.

“That’s the power that Cori Bush brings to this issue. She shares her own story so people see themselves in her,” Clark said.

Now, lawmakers and abortion rights advocates, girding against the conservative movement’s next assaults on reproductive health access, say they will feel Bush’s absence, worried they are losing allies who personally understand abortions in the face of a possible second Trump administration.