Vice President Kamala Harris has released her latest campaign advertisement featuring Kentucky abortion rights advocate Hadley Duvall, a woman who experienced years of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather.
Reversing the fallout of the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v Wade has been a central theme to Harris’ presidential campaign so far.
The advertisement, titled ‘Monster’ depicts 22-year-old Duvall starting her day completing monotonous tasks: pouring coffee, washing her face, loading the dishwasher.
In the voice-over, she says that she’s never slept a full night in her life.
Her stepfather began abusing her at the age of five, and later impregnated her at 12. She has previously detailed how she was manipulated into believing the abuse was normal—any attempts to remove herself later on in childhood were met with force.
“I just remember thinking I have to get out of my skin. I can’t be me right now. Like, this can’t be it,” Duvall says, as images of her as a child flash on the screen.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was a child. I didn’t know what it meant to be pregnant, at all. But I had options.”
Kentucky is one of several states to implement abortion restrictions that make no exceptions for rape or incest in the past two years.
Prior to this, it had the second most restrictive limit in effect in the United States behind Texas, at 15 weeks.
Under the state’s current law, Duvall would’ve been required to carry the pregnancy to term.
Her story captured constituent attention in another viral ad late last year during the Governor election of her home state.
Many Democrats attribute her inclusion to the successful reelection of Gov. Andy Beshear.
The campaigner’s voice-over also references Donald Trump’s contributions to the rolling back of reproductive rights.
His decision to stack the Supreme Court with anti-abortion justices enabled the conservative majority to turn over the power to regulate abortion—or ban it outright—to individual states.
“Because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, girls and women all over the country have lost the right to choose, even for rape or incest,” she says in the ad. “Donald Trump did this. He took away our freedom.”
Trump repeatedly took credit for appointing the three Supreme Court justices during last week’s Presidential debate.
He consistently asserted that the matter should be decided by individual states and said he would not endorse a nationwide abortion ban.
Duvall’s stepfather, who pleaded guilty to rape, sodomy and sexual abuse, is now serving 20 years in prison.
She first shared her experience in a Facebook post on June 25, 2022—the day Roe v Wade was repealed.
Alongside her involvement in Gov. Beshear’s campaign, the Owensboro-raised Christian has featured in media interviews with Vice President Harris, culminating in an appearance on stage at the Democratic National Convention last month.
Her plan is to continue touring the country with Harris up until the election.
The ad is soundtracked by Billie Eilish, who yesterday announced her support for the Harris-Wade campaign alongside her brother and producer Finneas.
“We are voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz because they are fighting to protect our reproductive freedom, our planet and our democracy,” Eilish says in a video posted across her social platforms.
“Vote like your life depends on it, because it does.”
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press
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