Biden campaign blasts Trump over abortion rights in new ad days ahead of debate

By Arlette Saenz, CNN

(CNN) — The Biden campaign is blasting former President Donald Trump over abortion rights in a new TV ad coinciding with the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and days ahead of the first presidential debate.

The ad, which was first shared with CNN, features a testimonial from Kaitlyn Joshua, a Louisiana woman who says she was turned away from two emergency rooms while experiencing a miscarriage at 11 weeks of pregnancy. She describes her experience as “a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade” and slams presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

“He’s now a convicted felon,” Joshua says in the ad as an image of Trump in court flashes across the screen. “Trump thinks he should not be held accountable for his own criminal actions, but he will let women and doctors be punished.” (The former president was convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and faces sentencing next month.)

“We want to support someone that does have our best interests at heart, and that’s why I’m so adamant about supporting President Biden,” adds Joshua, who is set to join second gentleman Doug Emhoff on Monday for a Michigan event marking the second anniversary of Roe’s reversal.

The 30-second spot highlights an issue the campaign sees as key to rallying voters, especially the young and female blocs that are crucial to his reelection chances. The ad, which marks the second time President Joe Biden’s campaign has used Trump’s felony conviction in its advertising, will run on television and internet-connected TV in battleground states and on national cable as part of the campaign’s $50 million ad push in June.

The new advertisement is part of the Biden campaign’s efforts to highlight reproductive rights around the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision, which it has tied to Trump’s appointments of conservative justices.

“Two years ago today, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court majority ripped away the fundamental freedom for women to access the health care they need and deserve,” Biden said in a statement Monday. “The consequences have been devastating: in states across the country, Trump’s allies have enacted extreme and dangerous abortion bans – many with no exception for rape or incest – that are putting women’s lives at risk and threatening doctors with jail time.”

“Donald Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare,” the president added. “If given the chance, there is no question he will ban abortion nationwide, with or without the help of Congress.”

Trump earlier this year said abortion legislation should be left up to the states, saying in April, “My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both.”

Following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision that overturned the federal legal right to an abortion, nearly two dozen states have banned or limited access to the procedure. States where abortion is most limited report higher rates of maternal and infant mortality, as well as greater economic insecurity.

The Biden campaign and White House are also bracing for a major Supreme Court decision on emergency abortion access. The administration has challenged Idaho’s enforcement of its abortion ban in medical emergencies, and justices appeared deeply divided as they heard oral arguments in the case in April.

Biden’s advisers believe reproductive rights remain a potent political issue heading into November’s election and could feature as a key contrast point in the president’s debate with Trump at CNN’s studios in Atlanta on Thursday.

Biden is spending the days leading up to the showdown at Camp David, where he is expected to run through 90-minute mock debates as part of his preparations to face off against Trump in person for the first time since 2020.

In a memo previewing the campaign’s strategy ahead of the debate, communications director Michael Tyler argued Trump “continues to pose the most extreme threat” on abortion rights, democracy and the economy.

While Biden prepares for the debate, his campaign is hosting more than 50 events across the country around Monday’s anniversary of the Dobbs decision. First lady Jill Biden attended two “Women for Biden-Harris” events in Pennsylvania on Sunday, and Vice President Kamala Harris will mark the anniversary with events in Maryland and Arizona on Monday.

CNN’s Michael Williams contributed to this report.

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