Woman who was raped by her stepfather as a child will campaign with the First Lady

WASHINGTON – A 22-year-old woman who campaigned for abortion rights after being raped by her stepfather as a child will campaign alongside First Lady Jill Biden in Pennsylvania this weekend as part of the 2024 election campaign marking the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade case.

Hadley Duvall of Owensboro, Kentucky, first told her story publicly last fall in a campaign ad for her home state’s gubernatorial election. In it, she addressed the consequences of abortion restrictions, especially when there are no exceptions for rape or incest.

In the ad supporting Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, Duvall talked about how she was raped by her stepfather at age 12, became pregnant and suffered a miscarriage. Her stepfather was convicted of rape and is in prison.

In the ad, Duvall named the anti-abortion Republican candidate and said, “Anyone who believes there shouldn’t be exceptions for rape and incest couldn’t understand what it’s like to be in my shoes.”

Beshear was re-elected and Democrats said Duvall’s ad had a strong motivational effect, especially on male voters from rural areas who had previously voted for Republican Donald Trump as president.

Now Duvall is turning her attention to the White House race.

She plans to appear alongside first lady Jill Biden at a rally in Pittsburgh on Sunday as part of President Joe Biden’s campaign to mobilize voters for abortion rights. Duvall will continue to campaign for the Democratic incumbent.

Jill Biden will also hold an event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.

The Supreme Court ruled on June 24, 2022, to overturn abortion laws that had existed since 1973. Since then, about half of the states have had a ban, and ten states have no exceptions for rape or incest. The consequences of these bans go far beyond restricting access for those seeking to end unwanted pregnancies.

“Survivors like me have our childhoods taken away from them, and that is something we are recovering from every day. At least we have the right to make our own choices,” Duvall said in a statement to the Associated Press. “But because of Donald Trump, there are abortion bans across the country, with no exceptions for rape or incest. I feel like I owe it to myself and many little girls to speak out. They can’t speak, and I can – and in this election, our lives and our futures are at stake.”

Trump, the likely Republican nominee, has repeatedly campaigned on repealing the federal right to abortion. He nominated three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, but he has publicly resisted supporting a national ban on abortion.

The events in Pennsylvania are part of a larger campaign surrounding the anniversary of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That campaign began this week with events hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris.

The campaign is holding more than 35 events across the country, including in swing states Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia. The events feature women and doctors deeply affected by Roe’s case, including Amanda Zurawski and Kaityln Joshua, who have said abortion restrictions put them at medical risk.

A majority of American adults, including those in states with the strictest abortion restrictions, want abortion to remain legal at least in the early stages of pregnancy, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

In the two years since Roe’s death, the reproductive health situation in the United States has become increasingly tense, and Biden and the Democrats are trying to highlight the growing consequences as a reason to re-elect the president.

Women who never intended to terminate their pregnancies have nearly died because they were unable to receive emergency treatment. Treatment for miscarriages has been delayed. In states with strict bans, routine reproductive health care is drying up. In Alabama, fertility treatments have been temporarily suspended.

Duvall is a senior at Midway University in Midway, Kentucky. She has also spoken out publicly about a state bill that would create narrow exemptions to the state’s abortion law.

AP does not normally name victims of sexual violence, but Duvall has chosen to remain anonymous and has spoken publicly about her experience and its connection to the abortion debate.