As the 2024 election cycle enters its final few days, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is attacking his Republican opponent Dave McCormick for supporting abortions in unusual circumstances only, such as when the health of the mother is at risk or in cases of rape or incest.
To bolster that point, Casey spoke Friday at a Wilkinsburg event featuring two Pennsylvania women who underwent abortions in recent years. Both women said the typical exceptions granted for women under existing bans wouldn’t have applied to them in their situations.
One of those women, Kelsey Leigh of Mt. Lebanon, made a choice to have an abortion after a 20-week ultrasound examination showed anomalies. She learned her son would not be able to swallow, his bones would be broken during delivery, and he would be in pain.
“It was the hardest time of my life saying goodbye to my baby boy before I ever got to hold him,” she said. “But it being a difficult time in a planned-for pregnancy doesn't make me any more or less deserving of having an abortion than the next person.”
Leigh’s abortion, which occurred after her 20th week of pregnancy, would not be permitted under most Republican-supported state abortion bans because her life was not at risk.
Sophia, the other Pennsylvania woman who spoke, said she was first molested by her father when she was 5. The abuse continued until she was 12. She asked to be identified by only her first name as a victim of sexual assault.
As an adult, she had two abortions because she wasn’t ready to be a mom, she said. It wasn’t until 30 years later, she said, that she had finally healed enough from her childhood trauma to have her own family.
Sophia said she decided to speak out before Tuesday’s election because she doesn’t believe legal exceptions for victims of rape and incest protect people like her. Instead, she said, most anti-abortion laws require victims to speak to police, provide copies of police reports and otherwise prove what happened to them before receiving care.
“If it took me 30 years, what makes you think that these women can face their trauma in just a few days?” she said.
A recent investigation by NPR showed evidence that in many states where anti-abortion laws are in effect with some exceptions, few women are able to access abortion in those cases.
“It's an unfair burden, a cruel barrier that stands in the way of healing,” Sophia said.
Sophia said she is supporting Casey, who voted to restore Roe vs. Wade — a legal precedent, she said, that would more fully protect women, including victims like her. Sophia said she also believes that politicians like Casey’s Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, who support abortion bans with exceptions, are not taking seriously her pain.
“If this was your daughter, your sister, your cousin, your friend, are you okay with your niece being forced to explain the most heinous violation, rape and assault where she had no control over her body — and just days after the attack, having to explain this in order to access her medical care?” Sophia said.
Casey said Sophia and Leigh’s testimony underlined how much has changed since the Dobbs decision in 2022.
“It isn't some theory or some constitutional debate about the finer points of the law,” he said. “It's about human beings, about women who are living in a different world than we were living in just a few years ago.”
A spokesperson for McCormick, Casey’s Republican challenger, referred WESA to a website that articulates his position on abortion: “McCormick is opposed to a national abortion ban, and supports exceptions in the cases of rape, incest, and saving the life of the mother.”
