In Pa., Biden campaign targets reproductive rights issue, as president faces fitness crisis

As President Joe Biden grapples with issues surrounding his fitness for office, his surrogates are hitting the swing states on some of the key issues most resonant with voters. In Pennsylvania this week it was reproductive rights.

Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who nearly twice died from complications of a miscarriage and went on the challenge that state’s ban on abortion, stood alongside reproductive rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers in Harrisburg to underscore the critical role reproductive freedoms will play in November at the ballot box.

“What is important to me in a state like Pennsylvania where abortion is protected is the fact that folks may feel like they are safe,” Zurawski said. “But it’s important to shed light that if Trump makes his way back to the White House, this will be an issue in all 50 states and no one will have access to state reproductive care.”

Zurawski, who told her harrowing story at a news conference outside the Capitol Thursday before appearing at rally in Bucks County outside of Philadelphia Friday, was among the activists, union leaders, elected officials trying to boost support for Biden this week in Pennsylvania.

The events came just days after Biden swept in to Harrisburg Sunday to meet with union leaders and voters and grab a coffee with Gov. Josh Shapiro, who voiced his continued support for the embattled president.

Zurawski was one of 21 Texas plaintiffs who last year challenged that state’s abortion ban. The 36-year-old IVF patient nearly died in 2022 when doctors delayed giving her a medically necessary abortion.

The Texas Supreme Court in May unanimously rejected that challenge, ruling that the state’s medical exceptions in the law were broad enough to withstand constitutional challenge.

Zurawski, who can no longer have children on her own and is seeking IVF surrogacy, is sharing her personal experience to lend support to the Biden-Harris campaign. Following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning constitutional protections on abortion, 14 states have effectively banned abortion outright, while many others have put in place more restrictions.

“When lawmakers write these laws they are not thinking, or maybe they are, about the individual impact to real families,” Zurawski told PennLive. “I think people like me and my family represent what happened across the country as a result of these barbaric bans.

“When we talk about it in the national conversation, I think people get lost in policy or the law or politics but at the end of the day these are real people being harmed. These are real families that are being attacked.”

In June, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made campaign stops across the country, including Pennsylvania, to underscore the role Trump played in the reversal of reproductive rights from American women. But in the weeks following the first presidential debate, the controversy over the president’s dismal performance has overshadowed the issue.

“The Biden campaign has been back on its heels for weeks and trying to find some opportunities to go on the offensive, particularly in crucial places like Pennsylvania,” said political analyst Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. “Reproductive rights continue to be a bright spot for Biden and Democrats and they would love public attention to turn that way.”

On Thursday, Zurawski was joined by Rep. Jennifer M. O’Mara, D-Delaware County, House Speaker Joanna McClinton of Philadelphia and others to make that case.

For O’Mara, whose 2-year-old daughter was conceived through IVF, the issue of reproductive freedoms hits close to home.

She said her experience exemplifies why the issue of reproductive rights is not just a “women’s issue.” O’Mara has disclosed she and her husband’s experience with IVF, which they sought as a result of her husband’s serious combat injuries while serving in Afghanistan.

“Abortion is health care,” O’Mara said. “When you hear Amanda speak about how she was denied health care and she almost died because she was in septic shock for days and was in the ICU….While her story and my story should not be national business, it is because we need people to understand and need to underscore that the healthcare options we are talking about must be options for us if we want to grow our families.”

Most major polls show the Scranton native trailing the former president, although a new PBX/NPR/Marist poll on Friday shows the president besting Trump by two points if the election were held today.

Abortion rights significantly trails other issues such as the economy, crime, immigration and even threats to democracy in Pennsylvania, according to polling from CNN and Emerson College Polling.

But in a state where abortion is legal and its Democratic governor has vowed to protect access, the Biden campaign to aiming to secure and even widen the slim margin that won him the commonwealth in 2020.

“Personalizing the issue with individuals who have experienced struggles in a post-Dobbs world is a sound approach to take, but I’m not sure how impactful it will be in helping to turn things around for Biden given the enormous focus on his personal limitations,” Borick said. “In the end, these efforts may help down-ballot Democrats more than Biden himself.”

Ahead of the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday, Trump has softened his language around the idea of a national ban on abortion.

But O’Mara questioned Trump’s pivot and said if his position is less rigid, it is too little, too late.

“The choice in November is a choice between moving women and reproductive freedoms forward or moving us back decades,” she said. “If we want to continue to have options, to have IVF and not be afraid to get pregnant because of what might happen, then we must vote for Joe Biden.”

Zurawski isn’t waiting to see what happens in November. She plans to move her frozen embryos out of Texas.

“It’s so important to share stories like mine….so we can encourage folks to continue to speak up,” she said. “That truly helps and ultimately spurs action.”