Biden-Harris campaign ad on Black maternal health and abortion rights to run in NC • NC Newsline

The Biden-Harris campaign is running an ad in Raleigh, Charlotte, and five other cities focused on Black maternal health and reproductive rights. 

The ad features an Atlanta women’s health nurse practitioner, Shawana Moore, who says “Overturning Roe was just the beginning.”

The ad is running in a seven cities in five battleground states with a focus on reaching voters of color, according to the campaign. 

“I think there’s fear and uncertainty,” Moore says in the ad. “My heart ached for patients needing care.”

Black women are more than three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Abortion bans and restrictions are predicted to hit Black women hardest by increasing the mortality gap and exacerbating the problem of maternity care deserts. 

Black women in the NC Senate argued during last year’s debate over North Carolina’s 12-week ban that the law will increase the death rate for pregnant Black women in the state. 

A University of Colorado research calculated that a nationwide abortion ban would result in an overall 21% increase in maternal mortality, and increase Black maternal deaths by 33%. 

A national survey of OBGYNs conducted by KFF last year found that 64% believed that the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade worsened pregnancy-related deaths, 70% believed it made racial and ethnic inequalities worse, and 55% believed it made it harder to attract new OBGYNs to the field.

The Biden-Harris campaign has made abortion rights a central issue. Former President Donald Trump has bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade, while voters in six states, including Republican states, have approved constitutional amendments favoring abortion access, according to KFF. 

Democrats this week have zeroed in on GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s comments on abortion. 

When Vance was running for Senate in 2022, he said he supported a national abortion ban, CNN reported. In a 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Vance equated abortion to murder. 

Last year, Vance told the US Department of Justice in a letter to enforce the Comstock Act to stop the mailing of abortion pills, the Washington Post reported.

More recently, Vance has expressed different views. He told NBC News in a Meet the Press interview earlier this month that he supported the Supreme Court opinion allowing continued access to abortion pills and Trump’s position that abortion laws should be left to the states.