It has been three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, and the left-wing media found a way to favor the losing side. On Tuesday, the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe praised activist Amanda Zurawski for supporting the choice to end babies’ lives. Zurawski reflected on the changes since the Dobbs decision and whined, “It’s been heartbreaking to watch what is happening in this country.”
The "Free & Just Storyteller Summit" is a three-day event for "abortion health care advocates" in Washington, D.C., and features 100 storytellers to share their personal stories of what they have experienced since Roe was overturned. Zurawski is one of the storytellers partaking in the event and told MSNBC:
ZURAWSKI: So my story starts about three years ago when I suffered under the extreme abortion ban in Texas. And in the three years since that, it’s just been heartbreaking to watch what is happening in this country and how our restrictions are expanding all across the country. And I’m here as part of the Free & Just storyteller summit, because there are so many people who have been impacted in the last three years. And so, although it’s a heartbreaking thing to commemorate, it’s also very empowering to be in community with 100 storytellers that are here advocating for our rights and standing up for what we believe in.
This isn’t the first time the media has used Zurawski to attack Texas. The abortion activist’s body was preparing to go into labor at 18 weeks, and she was told by her doctors that she was going to lose the baby. Because the baby still had a heartbeat, under the Texas law they could not perform an abortion, but when her condition deteriorated and her life was in danger, doctors waited despite the law not requiring them to do so.
USA Today Washington Bureau chief Susan Page took a policy turn in the interview and asked Zurawski if abortion was an impactful issue for the 2024 Presidential Election. Zurawski claimed voters need to be smarter:
So, although we maybe didn’t connect the dots between how the state of affairs that we’re in today is connected to President Trump and his last administration, I think we do see that people vote for abortion access, and we just have more work to do in connecting the dots between showing folks that who they vote for, ultimately, is how we get here.
In 2024, Zurawski was also featured in an advertisement video for former President Biden that blamed Trump for the reason of overturning Roe v. Wade and her medical scare.
Co-host Joe Scarborough backed up all the wins of elected officials who got voted into office that are progressively pro-choice, including swing states like Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Scarborough argued that abortion did play a role in the race in 2024, and anyone who disagrees is “misreading the whole sweep of races in the 2024 Election.” Definitely not biased at all and strange coming from a former Republican congressman.
It was a horrible situation for Zurawski to be in with her baby, but it is also heartbreaking to see the liberal media use her story to promote why the option of ending a baby’s life should be considered considering her situation had nothing to do with the Texas pro-life law.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
June 24, 2025
6: 45 a.m.
JONATHAN LEMIRE: Welcome back. Abortion health care advocates are gathering in the nation's Capitol this morning for the Free and Just storyteller summit, marking three years to the day since the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade. 100 patients, providers and advocates from 32 states are participating in the three day event, sharing personal stories about how they've been directly affected by abortion bans. And then later today. They'll head to Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress.
Joining us now is one of the abortion rights advocates participating in the summit. Amanda Zurawski. She was the lead plaintiff in the center for reproductive rights lawsuit that challenged the abortion ban in Texas, a ban that the Texas Supreme Court ultimately upheld last year. Amanda, good morning. Thank you for joining us this morning. Let's just start with this moment in time, your personal story, if you will, but also here, three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, sort of the landscape that so many women, not just women, that so many people in America now face over reproductive health care.
AMANDA ZURAWSKI: Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for having me. So my story starts about three years ago when I suffered under the extreme abortion ban in Texas. And in the three years since that, it's just been heartbreaking to watch what is happening in this country and how our restrictions are expanding all across the country. And I'm here as part of this free and just storyteller summit, because there are so many people who have been impacted in the last three years. And so although it's a heartbreaking thing to commemorate, it's also very empowering to be in community with 100 storytellers that are here advocating for our rights and standing up for what we believe in.
SUSAN PAGE: Amanda, this is Susan Page. So it's been three years. At the time of this decision, there was a sense among, I think, some abortion rights advocates that this was a silver bullet for Democrats, the issue of abortion rights and some of the early contests after the decision that seemed to be true. But you don't get the sense that it's defining American politics or certainly didn't drive a winning coalition last November for Democrats in the presidential race. Can you talk about what's happened to the impact with voters of this issue over these last three years?
ZURAWSKI: Well, I think it actually was quite impactful in the last election cycle. I think when we see abortion access on the ballot, we see it win and we see that time and again. We had initiatives on ballot measures in ten states, and we won in seven of those ten states. And we actually won in Florida as well with a majority. But we didn't reach this Arbitrary threshold that we needed to. So although we maybe didn't connect the dots between how the state of affairs that we're in today is connected to President Trump and his last administration, I think we do see that people vote for abortion access, and we just have more work to do in connecting the dots between showing folks that who they vote for, ultimately, is how we get here.
SAM STEIN: Amanda, it's Sam stein. Just picking up on that on the policy front, obviously, I don't think anyone anticipates a sort of a federal right to an abortion passing through this Congress and being signed into law by this President who said, let's leave it up to the states. So I'm sort of curious, where do you see the sort of biggest breakthroughs for the abortion rights community? Is it going to be legislative? It will be in the state, will it be judicial, and where are you focusing your resources?
ZURAWSKI: I hope you’re right. I hope we don’t see a federal abortion ban.
STEIN: Sorry, I meant not an abortion ba. A right to an abortion. Sorry, my apologies.
ZURAWSKI: Oh, sure. Sure. Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to see that either. So I think that where we’re really going to see the initiatives and where we’re going to see the most impact is at the local level and I’ve seen that in Texas firsthand. We’ve been fighting so hard in our state house, and we have been able to pick up some wins, albeit they’ve been small ones. But they are important and we know that this is going to be a very long process, and we're going to have to fight tooth and nail for every single crumb. And while it's exhausting, I think that's where we're headed. I think we're going to have to look at city council. I think we're going to have to look at our state houses. And I'm seeing that not just in Texas, but across the country. That's where folks are really plugging in and advocating and having a real impact.
LEMIRE: Will Of course, be watching the events of there in Washington. Amanda Zurawski, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Sam Stein, thank you as well. And Joe certainly, you know, this is, you know, three years since Roe V Wade, still a seminal issue for so many Americans.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, It is and you know John, it's interesting. So many people look at abortion say, “it wasn't as big an issue as we thought it was going to be in 2024.” Well, people are just looking at the presidential campaign. And obviously that is extraordinarily important. But you look at the Democrats winning in Nevada, a Senate seat in Nevada, that many predicted they were going to lose with a very pro-choice candidate there winning the Senate seat in the swing state of Arizona with a very progressive, very pro-choice candidate there. The same thing happening in Wisconsin with Tammy Baldwin, the same thing happening, of course, in Michigan. So you look at the swing states, a lot of those Senate races, the abortion issue made the difference between Democrats holding the seat or picking up new seats or losing the seats. So I you know, for people who suggest that because Donald Trump won by 1.5%, that somehow abortion didn't impact the race in 2024, I think they're misreading the whole sweep of races in the 2024 election.
