Reproductive rights groups say they are more confident that Vice President Kamala Harris will be able to appeal to voters, with some citing frustration with President Joe Biden’s abortion messaging.
Abortion access and reproductive rights have been a central theme in Harris’ campaign since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, with reproductive rights groups hopeful that the Harris campaign can use her message on the issue to further fuel voters’ enthusiasm for her.
“She is somebody who has put this issue front and center because she understands that the stakes are incredibly high for voters across the country and for people across the country. And I think that that is the reason that we see this electric energy in voters across the country,” said Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILY’s List, an advocacy group that promotes female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights.
And for some, Harris is filling what they saw as a gap with Biden’s record on abortion. Biden, who supports abortion rights, said during a June 2023 fundraiser in Chevy Chase, Md., that he is “not big on abortion” because of his Catholic faith — yet, adding: “But guess what? Roe v. Wade got it right.”
But the conflation of Catholicism and anti-abortion views has been harmful to the abortion rights movement, said Ashley Wilson, a strategic communications advisor at Catholics for Choice.
“For so long, progressives and moderates have ceded this narrative to the anti-abortion movement, and I think that is a political mistake,” Wilson said.
Biden has frequently chosen not to use the word “abortion” when talking about the issue. In his State of the Union address in March, he used the phrases “reproductive freedom” or “freedom to choose,” straying from his prepared remarks and skipping over the word “abortion.” Although abortion advocates appreciate Biden’s overall pro-choice position as president, they found his reluctance discouraging.
“It was a little frustrating that Biden can barely say the word ‘abortion.’ We understand what his background is, and we understood that he wasn’t necessarily the best mouthpiece for us around the issue, because he just really could not even say the word,” said Monica Simpson, the executive director of SisterSong, an abortion rights group for women of color.
Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last month put the issue even more in the spotlight. That’s because since the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade, the only uses of “abortion” in a DNC presidential acceptance speech were Bill Clinton calling it a “painful choice” in 1992 and 1996, and Barack Obama discussing “reducing unwanted pregnancy” in 2008.
Harris’ use of abortion as a central campaign issue is an acknowledgment of widespread support for abortion in a post-Dobbs world. The Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ended federal abortion protections, leading to a number of state-level prohibitions and restrictions.
An August poll from health care think tank KFF found that 70 percent of women of reproductive age supported a nationwide right to abortion, 64 percent opposed a national abortion ban at 15 weeks, and 74 percent opposed leaving it up to individual states to determine the legality of abortion. What’s more, 74 percent said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
“What we’ve seen since the Dobbs decision is that voters have shown very clearly where they stand on this issue,” Mackler said. “They support abortion rights. They support reproductive freedom. They believe that these are deeply personal decisions that belong in the hands of individuals, not with politicians or courts or bureaucracies.”
In March, Harris became the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic when she went to a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Minnesota. The issue has also been championed by her husband, Doug Emhoff, in his role as second gentleman.
Harris’ unapologetic support for abortion rights is a natural fit, Simpson said.
“Vice President Harris became the main spokesperson for the administration on this issue, which made all the sense in the world, as a woman of color, as someone who comes from a state that is pretty progressive. It was a lane that I felt like she just could stand in with a lot of power, and she did as the vice president,” Simpson said.
‘A huge, deeply popular issue’
Some Republican-led states with ballot measures that would expand abortion access have wide support for abortion. In Florida, 69 percent of likely voters said they would vote “yes” on a proposed state constitutional amendment protecting a right to abortion before viability to protect a woman’s health, according to a University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab survey released on July 30. The proposal needs more than 60 percent approval to be enacted. The same survey found that Florida voters preferred Donald Trump over Harris, 49 percent to 42 percent, and GOP Sen. Rick Scott over Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, 47 percent to 43 percent.
Trump said in an interview on NBC News on Aug. 29 that his administration would protect access to in vitro fertilization and have either the government or insurance companies pay for the treatment if he’s elected in November. Republicans in Congress have repeatedly blocked efforts by Democrats to move legislation that would protect access to IVF.
“The desire of the Republican Party is to not talk about abortion ever again in this election,” said Ryan Stitzlein, vice president of political and government relations at Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly known as NARAL.
Stitzlein said that in the post-Dobbs world, there’s been a change in attitudes about campaigning on abortion, and it is overall a less polarizing issue than it used to be. Before Dobbs, some Democrats saw it as a liability to campaign on the issue.
“I think there were a lot of people who thought that this was just an issue that it was better to just not talk about. We’ve never felt that way. We always knew that this was a huge, deeply popular issue and would be a motivator for voters. And that’s proven to be accurate,” Stitzlein said.
With Harris’ significant focus on abortion in her short campaign so far, an issue that past politicians have shrugged off as a risk is now something she can use as an asset, abortion rights advocates say.
“It matters a lot that the person holding the highest office in the land is able to understand what’s happening with people in the country that they’re leading, and this issue of abortion has been an uphill battle for decades in this country,” Simpson said.
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