A new ad from the Harris-Walz campaign shows the heartbreaking story of a Texas couple who were denied an emergency abortion under the state’s extreme abortion ban — and puts the blame squarely on GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The couple, identified only as Ondrea and Ceasar, became pregnant in the fall of 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court struck down federal abortion protections. Ondrea was 16 weeks pregnant when her waters broke and doctors told her her child would not survive, the ad said.
In the ad, Ondrea says she has been denied abortion care under the state’s near-total ban, which threatens doctors who break the law with felony charges punishable by up to life in prison. A minute-long clip of the ad, which the campaign shared on social media, will air on TV channels Wednesday evening ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ CNN town hall.
Ondrea’s child died and she had to undergo a six-hour emergency surgery because she had developed sepsis, according to the ad. Doctors made a large incision from her sternum to her pelvis to save her life. The video contains shocking photos of Ondrea in the hospital and her surgical wound, which remained open for weeks because it was too large to close.
Several parts of the ad include audio of Trump bragging about killing Roe and saying he believes women should be punished for having abortions.
“I feel like I’ve been robbed [of] a chance to grieve my daughter, because immediately after her birth I was in the worst pain of my life,” Ondrea says in the ad.
“I went from burying my daughter to fighting for my life. I felt like I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye. I remember thinking, God, let me be peaceful as I go.
The Harris campaign released the ad ahead of her visit to Houston, Texas, where she will host an event alongside women who have had to navigate the state’s abortion ban. Texas has a history of imposing creative anti-abortion legislation: The state passed a six-week abortion ban nearly a year before Roe v. Wade fell, forcing pregnant people to experience a post-Roe world long before the rest of the country.
“He did this to me,” Ondrea says in the ad, referring to Trump.
“This only happened to me because Roe vs. Wade was overturned,” she continued. “I almost died because I was denied a medical abortion.”
It is the first time the Texas couple has shared their story publicly.
The ad is part of a larger series focusing on reproductive rights and Trump touts his anti-abortion record. The campaign also released a longer video of the couple’s story, as well as a shorter video focused on Ceasar, aimed at men — a voting bloc where Harris was weak.
“A baby crying at night? I would like to hear that every night,” says Caesar. “And now we may never be able to get pregnant again. There are rights and freedoms that we have had for generations, but they have simply been taken away from us.”
Watch a longer version of the ad below.
