Vice President Kamala Harris’ modern campaign ad features sexual assault survivor Hadley Duvall, a Kentucky woman who was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant when she was 12.
Duvall speaks in 30 second adtitled “Monster,” that when she found out she was pregnant, she “had options” that victims of rape and incest no longer have after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Kentucky’s current abortion ban does not make exceptions for rape or incest.
“I didn’t know what to do. I was a child. I didn’t know what it was to be pregnant at all,” Duvall says in the ad. “Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, girls and women across the country lost their right to choose, even in cases of rape or incest.”
Trump has appointed three Supreme Court justices who voted for the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe. He has boasted about those appointments and said during a Sept. 10 debate with Harris that he would not sign a nationwide abortion bill, but he did not say whether he would veto such a ban.
Harris slams Trump on abortion rights, race in tense presidential debate
“What I did is something that Roe v. Wade has been trying to get into the states for 52 years, and because of the genius and the heart and the strength of six Supreme Court justices, we were able to get it done,” Trump said, adding that he “strongly” believes in the exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
During the debate, Harris said she would “proudly” sign legislation restoring federal abortion rights.
Duvall spoke publicly about her experiences for the first time after Roe was overturned and Kentucky’s trigger law took effect. appeared in the 2023 campaign ad for Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, criticizing Beshear’s Republican opponent for supporting an abortion ban in Kentucky.
“Telling a 12-year-old girl she has to have the child of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable,” Beshear said in a campaign ad.
Beshear won his re-election bid.
Duvall also appeared on Democratic National Convention last month with other women affected by abortion bans in Southern states, and joined Gov. Josh Shapiro in Philadelphia on Sunday to kick off Harris’ “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” campaign bus tour. The tour stops in Harrisburg on Wednesday.
The music for the “Monster” ad is the song “When the Party’s Over” by Billie Eilish, which premiered on Tuesday supported the Harris-Walz ticket “because they are fighting to protect our reproductive freedom.”
Harris was in Philadelphia on Tuesday for an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists, where she reiterated her support for restoring Roe and codifying its protections into law. She said women should be able to decide what’s best for them when it comes to their own bodies, “instead of having the government tell them what to do — especially a group of people in these state capitals who think they’re in a better position to tell her what to do than she is to know what’s in her best interest.”
“Monster” begins airing today on national television and on broadcast and cable networks in key states, including Pennsylvania.
