Why Democrats Use Personal Abortion Stories

When Dr. Austin Dennard, a gynecologist in Dallas, learned in July 2022 that her eleven-week-old fetus had a fatal medical condition, she immediately understood the medical implications.

What she didn't know was that she would soon find herself in the middle of a lawsuit against the state of Texas – and in the middle of the presidential campaign.

Dennard stars in a new political ad for President Biden's re-election campaign, detailing her diagnosis and having to leave Texas and its restrictive abortion law to get an abortion.

Democrats like Biden are increasingly allowing women to describe in stark, emotional detail the personal impact of the abortion bans championed by their Republican opponents. In 2023, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat seeking re-election in Kentucky, ran an ad featuring a woman who said she was raped by her stepfather as a child, criticizing a state abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Abortion rights have emerged as one of Democrats' strongest arguments to voters. Campaign officials in Kentucky said the Beshear ad helped sway some independent and conservative voters. The issue led to victories in the 2022 midterm elections and in other 2023 races. Now the issue is at the center of Biden's reelection bid, part of an argument that abortion rights are one of many personal freedoms that will be taken away if Donald Trump is reinstated elected president.

Dennard supported Biden and generally voted for Democratic candidates, she said, but never considered herself particularly political.

“Other than being an active voter, I don't follow politics closely,” she said. “I'm a mom in Texas, I drive my SUV to Costco, pick up food, and try to get everyone's shoes on in time for church on Sunday. There is nothing special about me.”

That began to change on June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court voted to overrule Roe v. Wade. That evening, Mrs. Dennard sat on the couch with her husband, also a gynecologist, and made a plan. If she had a problem with her pregnancy, they went to the East Coast to seek care. And they would try to facilitate the same help for patients who wanted to terminate their pregnancies.

Two weeks later, she was diagnosed with an anencephalic pregnancy, a fatal condition in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull. For the mother, this can lead to bleeding, premature birth and other complications that could jeopardize future fertility – plus the emotional trauma of carrying a child who will almost certainly die within hours of birth.

Texas' abortion ban had an exception for life-threatening medical emergencies. But Dennard said she didn't bother asking. The risks to her life were not immediate. “I knew I wasn't going to get one. I wasn't sick enough,” she said.

She was fortunate to be able to get an abortion at all, she said, a reflection of her connections as a doctor and ability to spend thousands of dollars traveling for the procedure.

“That privilege allowed me to access the care I needed,” she said. 'But it doesn't protect you. The brutality, the terror and the gaslighting – it permeates every level of privilege. That is the great equalizer.”

When Dennard returned home, she found herself in “a very dark place,” grieving her personal loss and struggling to provide care for her patients, some of whom faced their own difficult choices.

“It's unbearable to have these conversations. I now have more courage to talk about options for care and travel,” she said. “But it's still hard to talk about it because you never know if someone is going to report you for helping someone get care.”

Dennard and her husband have discussed whether to leave the state to practice medicine somewhere where abortion remains legal. For now they will stay put. But she worries about the prospect of a national abortion ban or restrictions on contraception.

“I'm a sixth-generation Texan. My entire family lives in Texas. My husband is from Kansas. Neither of us trained in states where we could give people abortions. But if contraception is taken away, we will have to move,” she said.

She became involved in the lawsuit after a patient became a plaintiff. While talking about her patient's case with attorneys from the Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion rights legal group, she mentioned her own abortion. In July, then 34 weeks pregnant with her third child, she gave emotional testimony in court about her 2022 diagnosis and her choice to leave the state.

“The fact is that everyone clearly needs a choice and some patients will choose to continue their pregnancy and that's OK. I am here to guide them, if that is what they choose to do,” she said. “But the problem is that the choice has been taken away. Completely taken away.”

The case – and the ad – turned her loss and grief into action.

“It has helped me become a better doctor and hopefully a better mother. I received such an outpouring of love and support,” she said. “I don't feel so alone anymore.”

Joe Biden's plan for Taylor Swift

There is an empty space on President Biden's list of endorsements for 2024.

Biden is trying to inject energy into his re-election bid, kicking off what will likely be a historically long battle into November between two unpopular nominees. Aides draw up wish lists from potential surrogates, including elected officials and social media influencers — and the approval of their wildest dreams.

Taylor Swift, the pop sensation and NFL enthusiast, can rally millions of supporters with an Instagram post or a mid-concert aside. She endorsed Biden in 2020 and last year a single Instagram post of hers led to 35,000 new voter registrations.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a top Biden surrogate, all but begged Swift to become more involved in Biden's campaign when he spoke to reporters after a Republican primary debate in September.

“Taylor Swift is big and unique,” ​​he said. “What she has been able to achieve in encouraging young people to consider that they have a voice and that they should have a choice in the next election, I think is extremely powerful.”

The chatter around Swift reached such intensity that the Biden team recently urged applicants in a job posting for a social media position not to describe their Taylor Swift strategy — the campaign already had plenty of suggestions. One idea that's been tossed around, somewhat in jest: having the president make a stop on Swift's Eras Tour.

Some of Biden's Republican opponents are also obsessed with a possible Swift endorsement. They know all too well her ability to mobilize young voters, but to them she is an anti-hero.

“I'm curious to see who will win the Super Bowl next month,” said former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wrote on X this morning, referring to Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. “And I wonder if there will be a big presidential endorsement this fall from an artificial culturally supported couple.”