Walz Tells of Women Living Under Abortion Bans, Putting Vance on the Defensive

By recounting stories of women who have suffered dire health consequences since Roe’s overturning, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota embraced a Democratic strategy as he argued for abortion rights.

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Gov. Walz Criticizes Trump’s Record on Roe v. Wade

Gov. Tim Walz attacked former President Donald J. Trump’s record on abortion — and then turned to the stories of women living with the consequences of abortion bans.

Donald Trump put this all into motion. He brags about how great it was that he put the judges in and overturned Roe v. Wade — 52 years of personal autonomy. And then he tells us, “Oh, we sent it to the states. It’s a beautiful thing.” Amanda Zurawski would disagree with you on “it’s a beautiful thing.” A young bride in Texas waiting for their child, at 18 weeks, she has a complication, a tear in the membrane. She needs to go in. The medical care at that point needs to be decided by the doctor, and that would have been an abortion. But in Texas, that would have put them in legal jeopardy. She went home, got sepsis, nearly dies and now she may have difficulty having children.

Gov. Tim Walz attacked former President Donald J. Trump’s record on abortion — and then turned to the stories of women living with the consequences of abortion bans.Credit

When Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was asked about the issue of abortion during the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday, he defended his state’s broad abortion-rights law and attacked former President Donald J. Trump’s record on the issue. Then he turned to the stories of women living with the consequences of the abortion bans that have been enacted in states across the country in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Mr. Walz, who is Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, told the story of Amanda Zurawski, who, after doctors sent her home from a hospital in Texas, experienced a complication in her 18th week of pregnancy that could have killed her. And he spoke of Hadley Duvall, a 12-year-old who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather in Kentucky.

Then he turned to the story of Amber Thurman, who died after delays in her medical care connected to Georgia’s ban on abortions after six weeks, according to a report by ProPublica. Ms. Thurman had driven to North Carolina, where she was prescribed a medication abortion. She took an initial pill in that state before driving home. After she took a second pill, she experienced deadly complications. By then, she was hours from the North Carolina clinic that, its director said, would have immediately helped her.

“The fact of the matter is, how can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography?” Mr. Walz asked, adding that there was a “very real chance” that Ms. Thurman would still be alive if she lived in Minnesota.

Mr. Walz’s answer was part of a broader Democratic strategy — one that has played out in television ads and campaign speeches, as well as onstage at the Democratic National Convention in August — of using women’s stories about reproductive care to make the case for an urgent need to restore protections on abortion rights. It has been a key theme of this year’s presidential campaign, the first since three Supreme Court justices appointed by Mr. Trump joined the majority that overturned Roe.

The exchange put Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Mr. Trump’s running mate, on the defensive. When Mr. Vance was pressed on his previous support of a national abortion ban, he said incorrectly that he had not supported one before adding that, while running for Senate in 2022, he had talked “about setting some minimum national standard.”

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