There was Hadley Duvall, calm and measured, hand in her pocket, as she recounted the violence that she endured before becoming one of the most prominent voices of the fight for abortion rights in her home state of Kentucky.
“Growing up, I was an All-American Girl, varsity soccer captain, cheerleading captain, Homecoming Queen — and survivor,” Ms. Duvall said onstage on Monday, with a pause and a pained smile. “I was raped by my stepfather after years of sexual abuse.”
She said she was 12 when she tested positive in her first pregnancy test. She miscarried.
Ms. Duvall, who is in her early 20s, said in an interview on Wednesday that the address at the convention — among the most dramatic moments onstage all week — was one of the most powerful experiences of her life, a milestone in her journey toward healing. She also said it was an opportunity to give voice to an issue that she contended was not about political views but about the burdens placed on young girls and women like herself when access to abortion is curbed.
“It felt like so much of my little self was taking her power back,” she said. “It is something that is going to keep my heart full for a very long time.”
She took the convention spotlight with two other women and one of their husbands to deliver emotional endorsements for Vice President Kamala Harris. The three women told of how their abortions, pregnancies and miscarriages were shaped, or could have been, by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Their accounts drew gasps and tears in the arena.
Ms. Duvall said Monday that although her childhood experience was harrowing, she was at least told at the time that she had options regarding the pregnancy — unlike many women today. Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe in 2022, triggered bans on abortion in almost all circumstances in Kentucky and several other states. Voters in Kentucky that year rejected a ballot measure that would have removed the right to an abortion in the state Constitution, but the Supreme Court upheld the state’s near-total ban a year later.