Kentucky abortion rights advocate speaks on national television with Vice President Harris
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
An Owensboro woman who appeared in a pivotal campaign ad for Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection appeared on national television with Vice President Kamala Harris Monday morning.
Hadley Duvall, who has emerged as an abortions rights advocate, sat next to the vice president to discuss abortion access in an exclusive interview that aired on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
“Women today, if they’re walking in the shoes that I was in, which was pregnancy from rape, then they don’t have any option in a lot of states, and they’re at risk for having no options after the election,” Duvall said. “And that’s very terrifying.”
Duvall and Harris spoke on the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a decision that ushered in near-total abortion bans in 14 states, including Kentucky.
After her campaign ad for Beshear aired last fall, Duvall told the Kentucky Lantern she initially wanted to share her story to help other survivors of abuse. At the age of 12, she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant, but latered miscarried. She said at the time that she immediately began “thinking about your options” after looking at a positive pregnancy test.
“Think about what these extremists are saying to a survivor of a crime of violence to their body, a survivor of a crime that is a violation of their body, and to say to that survivor, ‘And you have no right or authority to make a decision about what happens to your body next,’” Harris said. “That’s immoral.”
Harris said Duvall is “doing such important work to be a voice” on this topic.
The interview aired ahead of the first 2024 presidential debate scheduled for this Thursday on CNN. Democratic President Joe Biden will face former Republican President Donald Trump, who recently said states should make decisions on abortion policies.
Beshear, who is increasingly stepping onto a national stage, appeared with Duvall at a reproductive rights event in Nashville over the weekend and decried “extremism” in state abortion bans.
Duvall then appeared with First Lady Jill Biden at a campaign event in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Kentucky’s “trigger law” immediately went into effect and banned most abortions in the state. While there are no exceptions in the law for cases of rape or incest, there are very narrow exceptions to save the life of the mother. Kentucky voters later rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to specify the state constitution does not include the right to an abortion.
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