WASHINGTON — During Gov. Andy Beshear’s, D-Ky., reelection drive last year, his campaign released an ad featuring the story of Hadley Duvall.

“I was raped by my stepfather after years of sexual abuse,” Duvall said in the video. “I was 12.”

In the ad, Duvall criticized Beshear’s opponent, Republican Daniel Cameron, who as attorney general defended Kentucky’s strict abortion ban.

It has no exceptions for rape or incest and went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to an abortion June 24, 2022.

“Anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand what it’s like to stand in my shoes,” Duvall said in the ad.

Now 22, the Owensboro woman is sharing her story on the national stage, alongside first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as the Democrats try to make abortion a big issue in the presidential race.

President Joe Biden has blamed former President Donald Trump for the Supreme Court ending the right to an abortion.

Trump appointed three of the justices responsible for the ruling.

“To tell a girl who has already been robbed of her childhood that she will be robbed of her future as well is unthinkable, yet because of Donald Trump, this is happening in states across the country,” Duvall said Sunday at an event with the first lady. “If you think that they will stop there, you clearly have not been paying attention.”

After Beshear’s win, abortion rights supporters said the election was a referendum on the now-banned procedure and credited Duvall for her role.

“I think that by Hadley taking that brave step of going on the air and publicizing her story and sharing that, it really kind of struck home with a lot of Kentuckians, like this could happen to anyone,” Heather Ayer with the ACLU of Kentucky told Spectrum News in Nov. 2023.

Trump said it’s a good thing states can decide their own abortion rules and opposes Congress passing a national ban on abortion, as some Republicans want to do.