The Biden campaign on Monday ripped into former President Trump’s stance on abortion in a new ad blaming the former president for the near-death of a Texas woman after she was denied an abortion following a miscarriage.
The 60-second ad, titled “Willow’s Box,” features an emotional interview with the woman, Amanda Zurawski, who discussed the miscarriage of her baby — whom she wanted to name Willow — and the infection that almost killed her twice when she was denied an abortion.
The ad’s text explained how doctors were forced to send Zurawski home after she had a miscarriage because of a Texas law banning abortions even if medically necessary. Three days later, Zurawski was placed in the ICU with sepsis, and the infection may prevent her from ever getting pregnant again, the ad claimed.
After a few moments of Zurawski sobbing with her husband, a black screen appears with the words, “Donald Trump did this.”
The ad was released just hours after Trump released a statement on his stance on abortion, in which he said he was proud to have appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed legal abortions across the country.
He said the issue of abortion should be left to the states and also expressed support for exceptions to laws forbidding abortion that would allow them in cases of rape, incest or to save a mother’s life. He did not back a ban on abortions after 15 or 16 weeks.
“No woman should be forced into the situation Amanda was – being denied medical care and almost dying because of Texas’ abortion ban. But that is the reality in the United States of America today made possible only because of Donald Trump – a nightmare that he brags about,” Biden-Harris 2024 campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
Rodriguez contented Trump “made clear” he supports “the cruel, extreme abortion bans” in the Lone Star State that caused the near-death experience for Zurawski.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed this sentiment, telling reporters on Monday, “So, the only reason that — that extreme abortion bans are now in effect all over the country is because of the judges the previous President and Senate Republicans put in the courts.”
Biden said Trump is “simply lying” about support for overturning Roe. “It was never about public policy or what was right or what Trump believed. It was always about politics.”
The ad is part of the Biden campaign’s increase in attacks against Trump’s abortion stance in recent weeks. Earlier this year, the campaign said it planned to highlight the impact Trump had on abortion access and what’s at stake for reproductive rights in 2024.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.