Caroline Chiappetti

Because it is about damn time that our 248-year-old democracy elects a woman to its highest office 

I cried when I heard Kamala say the word “abortion” during her acceptance speech at the DNC. I held my breath, expecting her passing utterance of the word to be a mere soundbite. But she kept talking—and promised to pass a bill that will restore and enshrine the right to reproductive freedom for all Americans. I believe that Kamala Harris will do everything in her power to keep this promise. Because unlike everyone else to have held the office of the president, Kamala Harris knows firsthand that there can be no such thing as gender equality unless every woman in this country has control over her reproductive destiny. 

My daughter is one. I threw up every single day of my pregnancy. Her birth was complicated—I had severe preeclampsia, I hemorrhaged and needed a blood transfusion, and I had a third-degree tear. But I was ready to be a parent. No one should have to go through what I went through against her will.

We need to elect Kamala Harris because a majority of our Supreme Court is willingly blind to the horror of forced pregnancy. When I stop and think about the current composition of the Court and how most of the justices who voted to overturn Roe have never anxiously awaited the arrival of a late period, I want to scream. I fear our democracy cannot survive a Supreme Court filled with more Trump appointees. 

I want my daughter to know that girls are every bit as smart and strong and capable as boys, but gender equality will remain elusive until we elect a female president—one that ensures the next generation has more, not fewer, opportunities than their mothers. 

Caroline Chiappetti is a lawyer and writer.