WESTMINSTER, Calif. — The Santa Ana Cemetery is a place where Jocabed Torres comes to reflect on the life of her mother and the recent loss of Torres’ first daughter. About two years ago, Torres said she experienced complications in the second trimester of her pregnancy causing her to have a stillbirth.

“My nephew was born a few days after I had my stillbirth and so they would have been really close in age,” Torres said.

Torres said that experience shaped her anti-abortion perspective that she now advocates for within her community of Westminster and beyond about political candidates that share the same perspective. That’s why Torres is hoping to see anti-abortion officials like incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel of Huntington Beach in the California 45th Congressional District to possibly eliminate the codification of abortion rights from the California constitution. Steel, who is running for a third term in the district, has held an anti-abortion perspective with exceptions for rape, incest, health and life of the mother. She co-sponsored and later withdrew her name from the anti-abortion Life at Conception Act bill, due to it not listing protections for IVF, a fertility treatment she she believes in.

“From the beginning when I ran for public office I was very clear, pro-life and three exceptions and that’s where I’m staying at,” Steel said.

But another Westminster resident, Jennifer Cohen, believes abortion rights should be protected with a new candidate. She said she’s had two abortions that she considers to be life-saving, once when she was underage and another for health reasons during her marriage.  

“She has repeatedly voted against women’s rights, against bodily autonomy, against reproductive freedom,” Cohen said.

That’s why Cohen said she’s hoping to see Democratic candidate Derek Tran, a trial lawyer, veteran and a man that stands for abortion rights, take the seat.

“That’s something that I am going to fight for when I am in Congress. I have a 6 year old daughter. I can’t even imagine her growing up and not being able to make her own healthcare decisions. We need to make sure that government is outside of the exam room, period,” Tran said.

Cohen said Tran’s perspective in the 45th Congressional District will protect Californian women when in need.

“This impacts families, this impacts family planning. Do you want your spouse, your partner, your wife to experience pregnancy trauma and not be able to get the care that they need?” Cohen said.

But Torres said abortions can be equally devastating.

“I wanted my daughter, and this happened and it really affected me emotionally. So, I was like, if you intentionally do this, there’s real trauma that happens from abortion,” Torres said.

While abortion won't be on the ballot for voters, it remains a key issue weighing on voters' minds in this race.

The 45th Congressional District includes Fountain Valley, Westminster, Garden Grove, Cypress, Buena Park, Cerritos, Artesia, La Palma, Placentia, Hawaiian Gardens, Los Alamitos, Rossmoor and parts of Brea, Lakewood, Fullerton and Yorba Linda.