WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden might not often use the word “abortion” when he talks about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but Vice President Kamala Harris sure does. She's also toured a Minnesota Planned Parenthood clinic where the procedure is performed and routinely links the fall of Roe to the larger issue of rising maternal mortality nationwide.
Now that Harris is running for president in place of Biden, Democrats and advocates for reproductive rights are hoping that her bluntness on abortion — coupled with the administration's policies — will help sway voters to deliver them not just the White House but key congressional seats as well.
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“The president on the record was fabulous and the campaign was turning out multiple repro-focused ads a week, and had an army of surrogates,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All. “But, you know, nothing is more compelling than the top of the ticket being the most compelling on the issue, and that's what we have now.”
In her first rally as a candidate on Tuesday, Harris touched on the issue of abortion briefly, and on Wednesday during a speech in Indianapolis at a meeting of a historically Black sorority, she touched on her work in boosting maternal health. But she's expected to make abortion a major feature of the campaign going forward, as she works to draw a stark contrast between herself and Republican Donald Trump.
She's eager to portray herself as a direct and consistent advocate with a history of fighting for reproductive health issues, especially Black maternal health.
“We who believe in reproductive freedom will stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans, because we trust women to make decisions about their own bodies and not have their government tell them what to do," she said to loud cheers at a Wisconsin rally.
The Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, overturned abortion rights that had been in place since 1973. Since then, roughly half the states have put some sort of ban in place.
The consequences of these bans go far beyond restricting access for those who wish to end unwanted pregnancies. And generally, the states with the most restrictions also have the worst rates of maternal mortality.
Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the overturning of the federally guaranteed right to abortion. He nominated three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe. But he has publicly resisted supporting a national abortion ban.
Trump's running mate, JD Vance, has said he adheres to Trump's views. But in 2022, when he was running for the Senate in Ohio, Vance said: “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally."
Dr. Jamila Perritt, leader of the nonpartisan group Physicians for Reproductive Health, laid out a bleak landscape for women today that she hopes will change.
“The destruction of the health care safety net, assaults on bodily autonomy, and the rising maternal mortality rate clearly show us that pregnant people and those with the capacity for pregnancy do not have access to the options they need to stay safe and healthy,” she said, adding that it’s worse for Black women who must navigate racism on top of worsening healthcare.
“We need bold solutions to combat these crises on multiple fronts," she said.
Even before dropping out of the race, Biden had made Harris his chief messenger on the issue. In the days following the overturning of Roe, the vice president met with lawmakers in conservative states to discuss how to protect abortion rights in the ruling’s aftermath. They convened meetings at the White House. Earlier this year, she did a reproductive rights tour in battleground states, starting in Wisconsin. She was the first vice president to tour an abortion clinic.
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, has said reproductive freedom is an “everyone” issue, not a “women's” issue. On Tuesday, in his first public appearance since his wife started pursuing the top slot on the ticket, he visited an abortion clinic.
“We’ve seen the stories of women who had to literally be on death’s door before they got treatment. It’s barbaric, it’s immoral and it must change,” Emhoff said.
The president's personal views have evolved over his 50 years in public service, but the 81-year-old Catholic has always been more comfortable leaving the blunt talk to his vice president.
On the policy side, Biden has sought to make medication abortion more available, access to contraception easier, and his administration has gone before the Supreme Court to argue hospitals have a duty under federal law to perform the procedure in life-threatening situations even in states where abortion is now banned. Biden also has said the Hyde Amendment should be eliminated. Among other things, the amendment bars the use of federal funds to pay for abortion.
But when the president had the opportunity to hit Trump on the issue during their June 27 debate, Biden faltered, giving jumbled and even nonsensical responses, and he failed to check Trump’s false claims about Democrats’ views on the subject. That debate set his undoing in motion.
Harris' views have been consistent, from her time in the U.S. Senate and as attorney general in California. She links the issue of abortion to the larger problems in the U.S. with maternal mortality and morbidity — plainly discussing how Black women are at a significantly greater risk for complications and less likely to be believed when something goes wrong.
As senator, she advocated for maternal health legislation. In 2019, she sponsored the Maternal CARE Act, calling for grants addressing implicit bias in maternal health care. In 2020, she introduced a law aimed at addressing maternal health outcomes with a focus on Black maternal health. She’s also co-sponsored bills addressing birth control access and funding care for uterine fibroids.
During her time as California’s attorney general, Harris also sued an anti-abortion group that secretly recorded videos of abortion providers.
Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said Harris is poised to become among the most, if not the most, pro-abortion-rights candidates ever nominated by a major political party.
“If Harris prevails, it may have a big impact on how we address abortion rights because it’ll show that a more unapologetic, full-throated embrace of reproductive rights can lead you to win politically and overcome other political obstacles,” said Ziegler, one of the nation’s leading abortion rights scholars.
Renee Bracey Sherman, founder and co-executive director of the national abortion rights organization WeTestify, said Harris' identity as a Black and South Asian woman uniquely positions her to speak more personally about how abortion bans disproportionately impact women of color. She said it “means something for all of us" when people of color speak thoughtfully and unapologetically.
She added: “I’m looking forward to working with someone who we don’t have to beg to use the word ‘abortion.'"
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