RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – There was a round of applause for 22-year-old Hadley Duvall at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she hoped to encourage a group of students to join the Harris campaign and vote.

The intimate setting is a far cry from the tens of thousands of people she addressed last month at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

“What is so beautiful about a child that has to carry the child of its parents?” she asked the audience, referring to former President Donald Trump who described watching the fight for abortion rights in every state as “beautiful.”

Duvall says her stepfather began sexually abusing her at age 5. At age 12, he had her take a pregnancy test, which came back positive.

“The first thing he told me was that I have options,” Duvall says.

That was ten years ago.

Duvall says pregnant women in her home state of Kentucky now have no choice, let alone girls who are victims of rape or incest.

“No, there is no hope today,” she says.

Duvall suffered a miscarriage at age 12 and her stepfather is currently in prison.

At 22, she wants to let people know that such a scenario is not as rare as you might think.

“This happens more often than we know,” she says.

How does someone reach the national stage with her story?

Last year, incumbent Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear asked Duvall to be part of a re-election ad campaign, a campaign dedicated to reproductive rights. She says it didn’t take long for her to say yes. Republicans credit one particular political ad for Beshear’s victory, saying their candidates had won the rest of the lower ballots.

When approached by the Harris Campaign, she said she wants to help young voters understand the impact of the Dobbs ruling.

“So many of our ancestors fought for us to have it and we’re literally doing their work again,” Duvall says. “And that’s not fair.”

After everything she’s been through, Duvall is optimistic.

She travels across the country to tell her story and offer hope.

She says her work will not stop after the elections.

“I don’t want this to die after the election,” Duvall said. “This should be the new normal. For Gen Z to engage, to stand up for what you believe in, and to talk about things that you might not be comfortable talking about. That should continue after the race.”

A race whose finish is less than 65 days away.

KOLO 8 News Now reached out to the Trump campaign for a statement on abortion rights. Here’s what his press secretary had to say:

“President Trump has long been a consistent supporter of states’ rights to make decisions on abortion and has made it abundantly clear that he will NOT sign a federal ban when he returns to the White House. President Trump also supports universal access to contraception and IVF. Kamala Harris and the Democrats, on the other hand, are radically out of step with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth and are forcing taxpayers to fund it.”– Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary

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