Louisiana U.S. Senate candidate Gary Chambers is no stranger to polarizing campaign ads—he made headlines earlier this year in his “37 Seconds” video where he smoked a blunt while advocating for the legalization of marijuana. Then, again with his third ad, “Scars and Bars” which depicted him burning a Confederate flag and using Ku Klux Klan cut outs for target practice. His fourth ad, “Roe V. Wade: ‘A Real-Life American Horror Story’” was released Monday and provides a chilling warning about the dangers of living in a world post the high court’s June decision that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.
The 90-second ad opens with a “viewer discretion advised” message, and then launches into a series of visceral imagery, with Chambers providing a narrative voiceover. Viewers see Chambers walking into what appears to be a cemetery, before pivoting to a hotel room, where two women are obtaining an illegal and dangerous abortion and not afforded to the safety of the medical sphere. When one goes horribly wrong, the man performing the procedure quickly gathers his tools and cash payment, leaving behind the woman in distress. The grizzly aftereffects are immediately apparent as the other woman frantically calls 911, but to no avail as the woman bleeds out to her death. The video concludes back at the gravesite, with a clear shot of the tombstone reading, “In loving memory of Jane R.I.P. ‘Women’s Rights’” a clear and incisive reference to Roe v. Wade.
During the video, Chambers spouts out statistics about how abortions will still be provided regardless of legal status. He explains that countries that restrict abortions have a higher rate of abortions than countries that do not. “An estimated 1.2 million women received unsafe abortions each year before Roe v. Wade,” he said. He added that women on the low end of the socioeconomic scale are impacted even more heavily by this decision. He also listed severe hemorrhaging, infections, poisoning, and damage to internal organs among the life-threatening outcomes without safe and legal abortions.
Also overlaying the abovementioned scenes, viewers can hear Chambers’ narrating: “I am an ordained minister and regardless of what we all believe in, we choose those beliefs for ourself…The government, mostly comprised of mostly white men, has no place to decide for women what is right for them. The ability for any woman in America to make choices concerning her own health is a natural, basic democratic right of everyone. Abortions won’t end, but this democracy will if the government refuses to stay out of people’s personal choices. Make no mistake about it, women will die. And there’s nothing pro-life about that. I’m Gary Chambers and I’m running for the U.S. Senate to be one of the votes needed to codify a woman’s right to choose as the law of the land.”
In Chambers’ home state of Louisiana, abortion is already illegal after the 2006 trigger law was enacted upon the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
Chambers told a local news outlet about the ad, stating “We created this ad because this is the reality that Black, poor, and marginalized women will face in America. As a candidate for U.S. Senate, I believe it is my duty to articulate the horrors that women in this country will face.”
“We have condemned poor women to death, and we need to face those consequences,” he continued.
The ad was released just two days before Chambers qualifying began for the Senate race. Thus far, Chambers faces three opponents: the incumbent Republican John N. Kennedy, who is staunchly against abortion and endorsed by former-President Donald Trump. The other two opponents are Democrats, Luke Mixon, who opposes abortion except in cases of rape and incest and to protect the life of the mother and Syrita Steib who is in favor of supporting the rights to abortion.