A new video ad shared on X (formerly Twitter) by a rapid response team associated with the Biden campaign links Donald Trump — still the front-runner for Republicans’ presidential nomination this year — to devastating health impacts faced by some around the country since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The court undertook that move with three of Trump’s own nominees on the bench of just nine members, and since then, the ex-president-turned-defendant has taken ownership for the dramatic developments in the availability of health care that followed his presidential term. The new video points to cases involving a woman in Texas denied a medical exception allowing an abortion and a woman in Ohio who was criminally charged after she experienced a miscarriage, also featuring some of Trump’s clearly stated pride over the decision by the nation’s highest court allowing for a good deal of this.
The Texas case, which involved a woman named Kate Cox, exemplifies the serious problems inherent in even exceptions under GOP-led abortion restrictions for threats to the life of the pregnant person. While a pregnant person and their medical team grapple with whether the situation is serious enough to merit the exception, serious medical complications can occur, even effectively forcing the patient closer to potential death.
Abortion has repeatedly proven itself a losing issue for Republicans at the ballot box, however. Late last year, Ohio voters approved an amendment to their state Constitution that was set to establish baseline protections in the state for abortion to help fill the gap left federally. Amid elections conducted in the same period, Republican candidate for Kentucky governor Daniel Cameron, who was endorsed even by Trump himself, also lost after abortion was among central issues in the campaign. Cameron expressed some support for the GOP legislature-backed framework that blocked abortions even in cases of rape or incest, pressuring victims in these situations through pregnancy.
New ad: Trump is “proud” of ending Roe v. Wade.
Women across America are living with the consequences pic.twitter.com/uroI9P9HBn
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) January 22, 2024
