‘I See You, and I Am With You.’ Texas Women Needed That Harris Rally.

In Texas, the past few years for women have been terrifying.

Abortion bans became real. Exceptions turned out to be rare. Some have nearly died during miscarriages.

If you don’t feel like you’ve been abandoned by our lawmakers, you might feel like the government is trying to kill you. The 2024 election cycle, meanwhile, has been filled with necessary — but gut-wrenching — stories of trauma, fear, and near death.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ boisterous, joyous, and emotional rally on Friday night brought a welcome reprieve.

And it wasn’t just because Houston’s own Beyoncé was there. (Though she was, and she was magnetic.)

Standing in front of our giant, beautiful state flag, Harris told Texas women directly: “I see you, and I am with you.”

She led with the dual power of anger — at the situation Texas women find themselves in — and hope — that with one little trip to the polls, she could make it all go away. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” Harris said, quoting Psalm 30:5. She may repeat this line at other rallies, but there’s nothing like quoting a Bible verse in the Lone Star State.

It didn’t really matter which political party Harris was representing. Texas women just needed someone to acknowledge them. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, maternal mortality has risen, the state’s infant death rate has increased, and more babies have died of birth defects.

To that end, it’s important to note that this wasn’t just a Harris rally. It was a reproductive rights rally. There were large-scale signs surrounding Houston’s Shell Energy Stadium that said “REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM” and “TRUST WOMEN.” Red, white, and blue stars. Blinking lights. It was patriotic. And it was thoroughly Texan.

Reproductive rights — and the lives of Texas women — weren’t just one talking point in one speech. Speakers included mothers who’d gone into septic shock before they were treated by doctors, like Amanda Zurawski, who lives in Austin. Zurawski was 18 weeks pregnant when her water broke. The fetus wouldn’t survive, but doctors refused to terminate the pregnancy until she developed sepsis. 

It took three days before she “was finally close enough to death to deserve health care in Texas,” she said.

She named her daughter Willow, Zurawski said. Then she buried her.

Ondrea Cummings, who lives in San Antonio, was already crying when she walked on stage. She told the crowd that she’d never shared her story in public before. Her daughter, Emory Jade, lived only for a few minutes. In 2022, much like in Zurawski’s case, her water broke “far too early” into her pregnancy. “I was given no options,” she said. “Despite being at high risk for infection because of Texas’ extreme laws, I was told I had to wait, which I did, in the hospital for days.”

“I endured a partial lung collapse, two liters of infected fluid removed from my abdomen and an incision that ran from under my breast to my pelvic area, which has left a deep scar,” Cummings said. She spent three weeks in the hospital. “I nearly lost my life. I remember praying, ‘God, just allow me to be peaceful when I go.’ I required around-the-clock care for three months. My mother fed me, bathed me, and even helped assist me in the bathroom while I slowly recovered.” 

The crowd of 30,000 people heard these impactful, heartbreaking stories. Lines were long, and the stadium was packed. The Harris campaign said a total of 1,533,040 people registered for the event. Again, an event where the speakers talked in granular detail about in vitro fertilization, the danger of ectopic pregnancies, and the loss of fallopian tubes.

Rally-goers told The Barbed Wire about their own experiences — and their faith in Harris — while dancing to Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” and cheering, at the DJ’s invitation, “to REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM.” Then cheering to historically Black colleges and universities. Then to Kamala Harris’s Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and to women CEOs. There was Black joy on full display, and there was a celebration of womanhood. But there was also clear-eyed engagement.

“The government should stay out of your business and out of your bedroom,” 52-year-old Lady Tosha, from Austin, told The Barbed Wire. “Women are dying.”

“I had an abortion early on and a miscarriage, and it was really devastating,” she continued. “I’m proud to be here because I had a choice, and I didn’t die in a hospital. I trust Kamala Harris.”

Minutes later, Houston-based OB-GYN Todd Ivey spoke in his white coat surrounded by at least two dozen other doctors: “As a physician on the frontlines in Texas, what’s happening here is not beautiful. It’s devastating, and we must stop it. There’s no place for Donald Trump in my exam room.”

It’s clear that the Harris campaign and the national press have leaned away from any emphasis — any mention, even — of the exceptional fact that Harris would be the first-ever woman president. But it felt glaringly important on Friday night. In between stories of trauma, and an appearance from U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred, the crowd was dancing to Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” and Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.” Strange as it sounds, it didn’t feel incongruous. It felt like being seen. The value of representation, of a woman candidate, means that abortion rights were not only discussed — they were the main event.

The mother of 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman, the victim of the first documented “preventable death” post-Roe, was in the crowd on Friday, Harris said. “I promised her mother I would speak her name,” the vice president said.

Azalia Rios, from Edinburg, said she drove 5.5 hours to get to the rally. “A woman should have the right to choose what is best for her body,” she said, calling Harris “freedom for America.” 

Minutes later, Willie Nelson took the stage.

As Harris put it, “It ain’t right that you may have fewer rights than your mother or your grandmother.”

“We are at the precipice of an incredible shift,” Beyoncé said. “The brink of history.”

“Your voice has power and magnitude. Your vote is one of the most valuable tools,” she added. “Your freedom is your God-given right.”

It was impactful story after impactful story of tearful, vulnerable women who needed life-saving abortions when the lives of their babies were not viable. Cummings said she was speaking to “advocate for the women who are unable to share their truth, for the many Black and brown women whose pain is often dismissed and disregarded, for the women like Amber Thurman who have lost their lives under Donald Trump’s abortion ban.” 

“Lives depend on it,” Cummings said.

Harris called Texas “ground zero” for reproductive rights: “We know what’s at stake, and we will not be silenced.”

“Do we trust women? Do we believe in reproductive freedom? Do we believe in the promise of America, and are we ready to fight for it?” Harris asked, before she concluded, “When we fight, we win.”

(Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misspelled Ondrea Cummings’ name “Andrea Cummings.” The Barbed Wire regrets the error. )