Louisiana US House challenger's ad shows her giving birth

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Democratic challenger to U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise in a Louisiana congressional race released a campaign ad on social media that includes video of her giving birth.

Katie Darling said she was seven months pregnant when she decided to join the race in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that ended constitutional protections for abortion. The 75-second video documents Darling traveling from her family farm in St. Tammany parish in September to a hospital, where she grips the side of a bed while in labor.

“I wanted to share that this is real for me,” Darling, 36, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I am literally the one hooked up to the machines and the IVs in the hospital bed, going through childbirth and nobody else should be deciding how I handle that.”

In a voiceover, Darling highlights her concerns about climate change, Louisiana underperforming in education and the state’s near-total abortion ban — the only exceptions to the ban are if there is substantial risk of death or impairment to the patient if they continue with the pregnancy and in the case of “medically futile” pregnancies — when the fetus has a fatal abnormality. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.