Like many Republican states in the US, Louisiana has enacted strict abortion laws. Katie Darling was so horrified that she is now running for the US Congress – and is campaigning for votes with an intimate spot.
A candidate for the US Congress from Louisiana has taken on her state’s recently tightened abortion law in an unusually intimate campaign commercial. Democrat Katie Darling shared a video on her social media channels earlier this week showing herself being wheeled into a hospital in a heavily pregnant woman. A few moments later you can see the 36-year-old in labor and giving birth to the child. At the end of the recording she has her newborn son lying on her breast. As of Thursday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than 1.1 million times on Twitter alone.
Louisiana has largely banned abortions
“These days, I worry about storms that are getting stronger and more frequent because of climate change, about the poor public schools our children have, and about Louisiana’s new abortion ban, one of the strictest and toughest in the country,” says Darling, who is still a six year-old daughter added, “We should reassure pregnant women and not put their lives at risk.”
Louisiana, like several other Republican states, has largely banned abortion after the US Supreme Court upheld abortion rights in June by overturning the Roe v. Wade had tipped. The ban applies as soon as heart activity has been detected in the fetus – i.e. after about the sixth week, when women often do not even know that they are pregnant. The new regulation only provides for exceptions if the life of the pregnant woman is threatened. Victims of rape or incest, on the other hand, have to carry their children to term.
Darling, she and her husband considered leaving Louisiana after the abortion ban went into effect. But then she would have decided instead to run against powerful Republican Congressman Steve Scalise in November’s election and run for the House of Representatives.
“I wanted to share that this is real to me,” Darling said of her election commercial. “I’m literally the one hooked up to machines and IVs in the hospital bed and having a birth, and no one else should be deciding how I go about it.”
The candidate and her team were not surprised that her video caused such a stir on social media, although none of her other posts had generated more than 60 retweets up to that point. “We expected it,” said Darling. “We knew it needed a special message, so we thought about the content and what it meant.”
Darling, who used to be the executive director of a New Orleans rum distillery and now works as an account manager for an education technology company, said the overturning of the Roe v. Wade persuaded her to enter the race for the seat of MPs. “Reproductive rights and health are the basis of my campaign,” she explained. “I think a lot of people can relate to having a family and dealing with the challenges we’re facing in Louisiana — climate change, education, and a strict anti-abortion regime. That’s why the ad resonated with so many people finds.”
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Source: Stern
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