President Biden’s re-election campaign recently unveiled a powerful campaign ad that holds former President Donald J. Trump accountable for the harrowing ordeal of a Texas woman who faced life-threatening infections after being denied an abortion following a miscarriage.
The ad features Amanda Zurawski, who tearfully recounts the heartbreaking experience of losing the baby she and her husband had named Willow. She attributes the life-threatening infection she suffered to the restrictive Texas abortion law that prohibits abortions even in medically necessary situations.
The ad concludes with a stark message displayed on a black screen: “Donald Trump did this.”
This ad reflects the Biden campaign’s strategy to harness public outrage over the 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark ruling that safeguarded women’s right to access abortion for almost fifty years.
Biden’s team anticipates that voters, incensed by the court’s decision and subsequent restrictive abortion laws enacted by conservative states, will hold Trump accountable for these actions in the upcoming elections. The issue of abortion rights has played a pivotal role in recent Democratic electoral victories.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attributed the proliferation of extreme abortion bans across the country to the judges appointed by the previous administration and Senate Republicans.
The ad featuring Amanda Zurawski and her husband is part of a $30 million campaign and will be broadcast on major television networks in battleground states.
Amanda Zurawski is currently suing the State of Texas after being denied an abortion when her water broke at 18 weeks, leading to a life-threatening infection. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which litigated the Roe case before the Supreme Court, has revealed that 21 additional women have joined Zurawski’s lawsuit against Texas, which is under review by the state’s Supreme Court.
Zurawski, who attended the president’s State of the Union address and engaged in a reproductive rights event with him in January, plans to campaign for Biden in North Carolina and Wisconsin.
In the ad, filmed in March, Amanda and her husband Josh emotionally sift through mementos from her pregnancy. The infection she suffered while pregnant may impact her ability to have children in the future.
Amanda expressed the emotional toll of their advocacy efforts, emphasizing the importance of winning in November so that she can take a break from the exhausting fight.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington.
