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

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