Biden ad shows woman having to leave Texas to end a dangerous pregnancy

President Biden's campaign is releasing a new ad featuring the testimony of a woman who was forced to leave Texas to end a planned pregnancy that endangered her life.

At the 60 second mark, Dr. Austin Dennard, a gynecologist and mother of three from Texas, said she became pregnant with a baby she “desperately wanted.” When she was eleven weeks pregnant, her fetus was diagnosed with anencephaly, a fatal condition in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.

“In Texas you are forced to carry that pregnancy, and that's because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade,” she says, speaking directly to the camera. “It's every woman's worst nightmare, and it was absolutely unbearable.”

The ad is part of an effort by the Biden team to focus its campaign on abortion rights, which has mobilized voters since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Mr. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and top campaign surrogates have planned a frenzied series of events next week calling for the protection of abortion rights, tied to the anniversary of Roe on Monday. Access to abortion, Democrats argue, is one of many personal rights and freedoms that will be taken away if Trump wins the White House this fall.

The ad, which will run for a week, is aimed at suburban women and younger voters. It is scheduled to air during the season premiere of 'The Bachelor'” and on channels known to attract female viewers, including HGTV, TLC, Bravo, Hallmark, the Food Network and Oxygen. The ad will also run during this Sunday's NFL conference championship games.

Dr. Dennard, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, is one of more than a dozen women who are suing the state of Texas to clarify the abortion ban's exception for a “medical emergency.”

In July, she testified that because she was not “seriously ill,” she did not believe she would qualify for an abortion under the “extremely vague and confusing” law. Separately, she also met with Jill Biden as part of an effort to raise awareness about abortion bans.

“Even planned pregnancies that are prayed for can end in abortion,” she says the first lady said. “The state of Texas should not be making these decisions for me or anyone else.”