“My understanding of pregnancy and life and loss was honed in those personal moments that cannot be imagined until they are lived,” wrote Dr. Rob Davidson.
Days after JD Vance insisted in this month’s vice presidential debate that Trump’s abortion laws would “leave” the choice of whether to ban abortion “to the states,” a viral thread on X from an ER doctor and father on the need for individual choice has garnered over 3 million views.
Michigan doctor Rob Davidson took to X to share his frustration with Vance and Trump would leave the issue of abortion to the states.
“[Vance] claimed that the US is a diverse country,” Davidson wrote after sharing that his wife experienced four miscarriages over the course of raising their three children. “I couldn’t agree more—we ARE diverse—but that diversity does not end at state lines.”
Davidson is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care, an organization of more than 20,000 doctors and advocates in the U.S. working to expand healthcare access, lower patient costs and protect reproductive rights. His X thread went on to share his personal story of his wife’s first pregnancy loss and how the experience made him shift his own views on when fatherhood starts. He wrote, “In the span of a year, my views on when life begins were shaken. Science and medicine cannot define it. Religion cannot define it. Government certainly cannot define it.”
‘Leaving it to the states’ as a matter of abortion policy negates the diversity that exists between and within individuals when it comes to whether or not to continue a pregnancy.
Dr. Rob Davidson
After calling on his ER doctor experience and mentioning the many risks that pregnancy involves—including eclampsia, strokes, blood clots and sepsis—Davidson wrote that leaving matters as crucial as abortion policy to be decided at the state level “negates the diversity that exists between and within individuals when it comes to whether or not to continue a pregnancy.” He said, “‘leave it to the states’ should really be changed to ‘leave it to the individuals,’ and those individuals should have the freedom to decide, in concert with whomever they decide to include in that decision, what happens to their own bodies.”
Davidson’s viral tweet thread comes after months of women sharing their personal experiences with abortion and miscarriage through social media and campaign ads with the hope that their personal stories might sway voters and lawmakers to support pro-choice legislation. At this summer’s DNC, activists Amanda Zurawski, Kaitlyn Joshua and Hadley Duvall all spoke about their own experiences with abortion, pregnancy and miscarriage to stress the U.S.’ need for reproductive freedom.
Davidson’s thread adds a man’s experience with fatherhood to the conversation, since men also have a responsibility to ensure equal access to reproductive rights as part of the basic human right to healthcare. Tim Walz has also spoken out about the need for reproductive healthcare from a man’s perspective, using the Oct. 1 debate to share his family’s story of struggling to conceive and relying on fertility treatments. Meanwhile, the recent campaign ad “Something’s Missing” adds another layer to recent news about the fatal consequences of abortion bans on women by highlighting the impact of a mother’s death on the father and sons left behind.
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