NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For decades, only three people knew Gloria Johnson had had an abortion.

But a year of watching women and doctors agonize under Tennessee’s strict abortion ban kicked up a fire in the longtime Democrat. She watched in dismay as her Republican colleagues in the General Assembly dismissed concerns that the law was harming women. Many GOP lawmakers argued that only on rare occasions was an abortion needed to save a life.

So without telling her legislative staff or family in advance, the then-60-year-old state representative stood before a Republican-controlled House panel in March 2023 and testified about the abortion she had at age 21. She made the decision to have an abortion, she said, as a newly married college student after being diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm. That would likely have killed her if she did nothing, but might have harmed the baby if Johnson got the treatment she needed to save her own life.

“The reality is that we’re in a situation where people act like stories like mine are one in a million when actually they happen every day,” Johnson said in a recent interview, nearly a year after her dramatic testimony.

Johnson, now running as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Marsha Blackburn, has joined the growing ranks of progressive candidates choosing to tell their own abortion stories. They are doing so more frequently in states that have banned abortion in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Democrats think that even in many strongly Republican states voters support their view that such personal choices should be left to women to make for themselves and that showing voters how hard their own decisions were will help make that case.

Recent elections suggest the fight for abortion rights may have real currency. Statewide ballot measures supporting reproductive rights have won big since the high court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, including in GOP strongholds such as Kansas and Kentucky.

Reproductive rights supporters celebrated last month after Marilyn Lands won a special election in Alabama, claiming a legislative seat long held by Republicans. Alabama currently bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with almost no exception.

Lands made abortion rights central to her campaign, releasing a video in which she disclosed having an abortion after testing determined that her baby had a genetic disorder and could not survive.

Lands made a comparison to Alyssa Gonzales, a woman denied the same care just months after Dobbs despite having almost the same diagnosis as Lands. Gonzales traveled 10 hours out of state to Washington, D.C., to get the help she needed.

“Our media consultant did say, ‘Marilyn, you don’t have to do this, the issue is compelling enough on its own,’” Lands said. “I think they wanted to be sure that I really was comfortable with it, and I was. … It was absolutely the right thing to do.”

For the most part, though, election victories have been slower to come for pro-choice candidates than when they are framed in a ballot measure. Measures legalizing recreational marijuana and Medicaid expansion also have won in conservative states but have not translated into many wins for candidates supporting them.

That leaves political experts watching races such as Johnson’s Tennessee Senate bid to see if telling more personal stories will make a difference.

“If these candidates continue to be successful, it’ll just once again show us that people are unhappy with state abortion policies but also that abortion is a big enough deal to them that they may vote for someone they may not otherwise,” said Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis.

Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to state legislatures, said Lands’ victory was a “political earthquake in Alabama.”

“In red states, when candidates share these stories, it helps voters see there’s someone championing the things they care about, who shares their experiences,” she said.

While the majority of candidates and lawmakers who have shared abortion stories have been Democrats, Republican Sam Brown has chosen to revisit his wife’s abortion as he vies for a U.S. Senate seat in Nevada. Earlier this year, Brown’s wife talked candidly about the abortion she had before the two met. Brown said he would oppose a federal abortion ban while supporting Nevada’s current law protecting the right to an abortion up to 24 weeks — roughly the standard nationally under Roe v. Wade.

Even before the right to abortion was struck down, there were hints that politicians’ personal stories could make a difference.

In Georgia, Democrat Shea Roberts first ran for the state House in 2018 but lost to Republican Deborah Silcox. In 2020, Roberts shared her abortion story while running once again and won.

Roberts started talking about her decision to terminate her nonviable pregnancy — first before small groups of voters and then at news conferences. She said she owed her win to that decision.

“I regretted not being braver the first time around,” she said.

At the federal level, Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Pramila Jayapal of Washington state and Barbara Lee of California have shared their abortion stories openly since speaking about them at a House committee hearing in 2021 on abortion rights.

And as the future of Roe v. Wade hung in the balance after the Supreme Court’s draft ruling leaked, Democratic Reps. Marie Newman of Illinois and Gwen Moore of Wisconsin also spoke openly about their abortions.

In Arizona, state Sen. Eva Burch told fellow lawmakers from the Senate floor last month that she was going to get an abortion because her pregnancy was no longer viable. In a nearly 10-minute speech, the 43-year-old first-term lawmaker, who previously worked as a nurse practitioner at a women’s health clinic, described a “rough journey” with fertility and an earlier miscarriage.

Burch criticized Arizona’s restrictions as out of touch, saying state law requires an ultrasound that her doctor did not order. She also said she was given bad information about alternative treatments.

“I think a lot of people wish they could tell their story, but either they don’t have the platform or they don’t want to and they shouldn’t have to,” Burch said later. “If that’s something that I can do for people, I’m going to do it in whatever capacity I possibly can.”

In Wisconsin, Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an obstetrician and gynecologist who performs abortions, entered the race last week for an open congressional seat in a Republican district. Minnesota state Sen. Kelly Morrison, a practicing OB-GYN, is running for Congress and promoting her support for abortion rights.

Back in Tennessee, which severely limits exemptions to its abortion ban, Gloria Johnson isn’t the only candidate sharing her story.

At 19 weeks pregnant, Allie Phillips learned she had a nonviable pregnancy, but she did not meet the requirements to receive an abortion in the state despite the many complications she was having. Her account of traveling outside Tennessee with her husband to get the services she needed has circulated widely on social media.

Phillips has since joined a group of women challenging the legality of Tennessee’s abortion law. She announced her candidacy for the state House against a Republican who she says played down her story when she met with him last year.

Johnson says reproductive rights are a priority for Democrats and Republicans. She knows Tennessee voters have not elected a Democrat to statewide office in nearly 20 years but thinks being open will help her connect with anyone who cares about how women are treated.

“I’m absolutely setting myself apart. I’m letting you know that I’m a woman who cares about women’s reproductive choice,” she said. “To me it’s about equality and rights.”

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Fernando reported from Chicago.

Amy Lindgren

Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is the eighth of 12 columns on making a career change which appear the second Sunday of each month, from September through August. Last month’s column discussed LinkedIn for career-changers, while the months before focused on resume strategies; the back-to-school decision; career change steps in your 60s; 10 ideas for choosing a new career; a sample timeline; and questions to consider when changing careers. 

Everyone’s heard the familiar lament: If you need experience to get hired, how do you get the experience? It’s a momentum-killing puzzle for any job seeker, let alone for career-changers.

In this monthly series we’ve been looking at different challenges you’ll need to manage if you leave one career path for another. Aside from choosing your direction, perhaps no other task will be as important as gaining experience in the new field.

This exposure will not only build skills and knowledge but it will also provide valuable information about the work itself. The first benefit could help you enter the field at a higher level, while the second might guide you in choosing the specific area you’d prefer.

Here are ways to gain needed experience as you move forward on your career-change path.

Leverage current work: You may think your current job is as far from the new field as you can get, but in truth there are almost always overlaps between any two occupations — or at least, there’s the opportunity to create overlap.

Take, for example, an over-the-road trucker who has been studying communications online while waiting for loads at different terminals. Can this person write articles for the transit company’s newsletter? Or start an employee page on the company website? Perhaps the driver could create safe-driving tools, to be used later as work samples in interviews.

If this person were making a less dramatic switch — say from driving to being a dispatcher, or perhaps the logistics coordinator — he or she might ask for cross-training or the opportunity to use unpaid time to job shadow or apprentice in the role.

Whatever the career paths in question, a lot depends on the workplace and on the worker’s willingness to let others know about the pending career change. But if those factors line up, the in-house route can be the smoothest way to learn tasks relevant to a new career.

Work part-time in the new field: If your schedule allows, a part-time job might be the perfect way to gain experience. Part-time roles are usually easier to land than full-time, and are often closer to entry level. They also provide an advantage for later job search: You may have access to internal leads and a built-in network to help you land the full-time job you eventually seek.

As a pro tip, remember that part-time work adjacent to your desired career can also be helpful. For example, if you’re training to become a physician’s assistant, you won’t likely be hired in that role until you’ve completed required coursework or testing. But you can still gain benefit (and points with later employers) if you pick up hours as a clinic receptionist or another position exposing you to medical documentation, patient service, and other aspects of health care professions.

Enroll in training with an internship: Speaking of required coursework … some fields are only open to those who have completed an approved training program. If this includes your new career, be sure your training program provides at least one internship. Even if the profession doesn’t require this extra element, it’s one of the best ways to transition from student to employee when entering a new field.

Build your own work experience: This route has become easier than ever in our world of side hustles and instant entrepreneurs. For example, the truck driver changing to communications could start a blog or newsletter on any topic. Or, he or she could volunteer to do that for a nonprofit or startup company. Becoming a self-employed consultant is another option that could result in testimonials and work samples — as well as pocket money.

One caution if you choose this pathway to gaining experience: It’s easy to lose momentum if you don’t find a project to dive into. Give yourself just a month or two for your gig to bear fruit and then switch to a different option on this list.

Remember that the goal is the experience, and you want to get that one way or the other so you can move forward with your larger goal of changing careers.

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The hazards of remaking a beloved film are well known. While the 1991 comedy “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead,” starring Christina Applegate, didn’t exactly thrill critics 30 years ago, it’s become a cult classic, especially for elder millennials who grew up on the movie. It’s the ideal text for a remake — the source material isn’t regarded as untouchable, the name recognition is high, and it can be easily adaptable to a modern milieu while still stoking those childhood memories for those who love the original.

Nostalgia can be a trap, one that writer Chuck Hayward and director Wade Allain-Marcus fortunately sidestep in their remake. There are enough nods to the first film to please fans looking for those Easter eggs, but they don’t get in the way of the story itself, a teen comedy that keeps it real, despite the heightened circumstances. They also update the family from white to Black, which brings a new layer of stakes to the situation.

After their mother (Patricia “Ms. Pat” Williams) suffers a nervous breakdown at work, the Crandell siblings are left in the care of a Mrs. Sturak (June Squibb), a sweet old lady who reveals herself to be a nagging, racist, slut-shaming tyrant. In her advanced age, the wild rager that the kids throw in the house is too much for her to bear, and she (as the title suggests) drops dead from shock, or perhaps secondhand smoke. Hoping to evade authorities, the Crandell siblings get rid of her body — along with her purse filled with cash from mom.

Without wanting to disturb their mentally fragile mother, shipped off to a meditation retreat in Thailand, it’s up to big sis Tanya (Simone Joy Jones) to get a big-girl job and provide for her siblings. So much for a fun summer, she’s now learning the joys of a Los Angeles morning commute and cutthroat office politics at a fashion company called Libra. Meanwhile, her skater brother Kenny (Donielle T. Hansley Jr.) has to get his slacker act together to hold down the fort at home.

Much of the appeal of the first film came from star Applegate in her first major film role (she was already well-known thanks to the sitcom “Married… With Children”), playing eldest sister Sue Ellen. Jones is similarly charming, in a different way. She sells a performance of a likable teen who is in over her head but gamely manages to thrive in a professional working environment.

The script by Hayward is not exactly breaking new ground (it is a remake after all) but it establishes the siblings as unique and distinctive characters, including smart and weird little bro Zack (Carter Young) and morbid gamer tween sis Melissa (Ayaamii Sledge). Their interactions are funny and natural, and their healthy skepticism of the police has real consequences and informs their questionable decision-making.

The only weak link in the family is Williams, a stand-up comedian whose small, underwritten role as mom to the Crandell kids doesn’t play to her strengths. She’s in a handful of scenes, and Tanya’s role model is filled by Nicole Richie playing her boss at Libra, Rose. Richie is so dynamic and energizing on screen you wonder why she doesn’t act more, and she has genuine chemistry with Jones.

This is the first major feature film directed by Allain-Marcus, an actor who co-starred on “Insecure,” and he does a lot to demonstrate his abilities and influences as a director here. The cinematography by Matt Clegg is crisp and saturated, utilizing a lot of complex tracking shots, and there are nods to ‘70s-style filmmaking and retro touches like the yellow title font that drops about 18 minutes into the film. Some of these flourishes are slightly inconsistent with the material, but demonstrate a new filmmaker excited to experiment with the form of the teen comedy.

“Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” is surprisingly authentic and fun for this kind of nostalgia-baiting remake material, which is naturally formulaic. It’s the focus on character and allowing the actors to shine that makes this one sing, and it should make a star out of Jones, who, like her character, manages to hold it all together.

‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for teen drug use, language and some sexual references)

Running time: 1:38

How to watch: In theaters Friday

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