All through Joe Biden’s presidency, he leaned on the outspoken former prosecutor and senator he chosen as his vp, Kamala Harris, to be the White Home’s voice of unflinching assist for reproductive well being rights.
Now, as Democrats rebuild their presidential ticket only a few months earlier than Election Day, Harris would extensively be anticipated to take an aggressive stance in assist of abortion entry if she turned the social gathering’s new presumptive nominee — hitting former President Donald Trump on a difficulty that would undermine his probabilities of victory. Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday when he introduced his choice to depart the race.
Whereas Biden sought to maintain abortion heart stage in his reelection bid, abortion advocates had harbored doubts that the president — a working towards Catholic who has mentioned he’s not “big on abortion” — could possibly be an efficient standard-bearer as Republican efforts erode entry to abortion and different ladies’s well being care across the nation.
Harris, however, turned the primary vp to go to a clinic run by the Deliberate Parenthood Federation of America. She undertook a nationwide tour targeted on reproductive rights. And when Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was named Trump’s working mate, Harris used her subsequent marketing campaign look to criticize him for blocking protections for in vitro fertilization.
“Most importantly, Harris can be the face of the drive to guard abortion rights,” Larry Levitt, government vp for well being coverage at KFF, a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information, mentioned in an interview earlier than Biden stepped apart. “Abortion entry would doubtless be entrance and heart in her marketing campaign.”
A robust stance on abortion shouldn’t be the one main distinction to the GOP that Harris affords: She is properly versed in well being coverage. As a baby, Harris typically accompanied her mom to work on the weekends, visiting the lab the place she was finding out breast most cancers.
Whereas working for president in 2019, she backed “Medicare for All,” a single-payer insurance coverage proposal that established her bona fides as a extra progressive voice on well being coverage. And as California’s lawyer basic, she fought towards consolidation within the well being trade over issues it could drive up costs.
She stumped for a Biden administration rule setting minimal staffing ranges at federally funded nursing houses in April.
“She deserves credit score, she’s talked about them on the marketing campaign path. I don’t see any change there within the priorities on what Democrats wish to do on well being care if she turns into the nominee,” mentioned Debbie Curtis, vp at McDermott + Consulting.
An intensified deal with ladies’s well being and abortion might assist provoke Democratic voters within the last dash to the election. Because the three Supreme Court docket justices named by Trump helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, public opinion has turned towards Republicans on abortion, even contributing to an unexpectedly poor showing within the 2022 midterm elections.
Thirty-two % of voters mentioned they might vote just for a candidate for a significant workplace who shares their views on abortion, according to a Gallup Poll conducted in May. That’s a document excessive since Gallup first requested the query in 1992. Almost twice as many citizens who assist abortion, in contrast with those that oppose abortion, maintain that view.
Sixty-three % of adults mentioned abortion needs to be authorized in all or most instances, primarily based on a ballot performed in April by Pew Research Center. Thirty-six % mentioned it needs to be unlawful in all or most instances.
Republicans, in flip, have been eager to distance themselves from their very own victory on the difficulty. Trump angered some members of his base by saying he would go away choices on abortion to the states.
Regardless, advocates warning that the GOP’s new moderation-by-omission on the difficulty masks their precise, extra excessive stance. Vance has been clear up to now about his support for a national abortion ban. And whereas the GOP platform adopted through the social gathering’s conference final week might not explicitly name for a nationwide ban on abortion, party leaders’ recognition of “fetal personhood,” the concept as quickly as an egg is fertilized it turns into an individual with full authorized rights, would create such a ban routinely if the Supreme Court docket discovered it constitutional.
These views stand in distinction to these of many Republicans, particularly ladies. About half of Republican ladies voters suppose abortion needs to be authorized in all or most instances, in accordance with a recent national survey by KFF. And majorities of girls who vote Republican imagine abortion needs to be authorized in instances of rape, incest, or a being pregnant emergency.
If Harris heads the ticket, she can be anticipated to hammer on these points within the coming months.
“It’s been considered one of if not the principle challenge she’s emphasised within the final yr or two,” mentioned Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb professor of world communications at Harvard College. “Clearly the Republicans are attempting to defang the difficulty. It’s been a catastrophe for them.”
It’s doubtless, although, that Republicans would paint Harris’ views on abortion as extremist. Throughout the presidential debate towards Biden, Trump falsely claimed Democrats assist abortions late in being pregnant, “even after delivery.”
Shortly after information broke that Biden had endorsed Harris, Susan B. Anthony Professional-Life America issued a press release calling out Harris’ document and providing proof of what’s to come back. “Whereas Joe Biden has bother saying the phrase abortion, Kamala Harris shouts it,” mentioned Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president.
Some pollsters have mentioned Harris must do extra than simply marketing campaign towards Republican efforts to roll again abortion entry to really encourage voters as a result of so many points, similar to inflation, the economic system, and immigration, are competing for consideration.
“She has to say she is working for a federal regulation that can carry again Roe v. Wade,” mentioned Robert Blendon, an emeritus public well being professor at Harvard College. “She wants one thing very particular and clear.”
Harris’ elevation to the highest of the ticket would come at a crucial juncture within the battle over reproductive rights.
The Supreme Court docket heard two abortion instances within the time period that ended this month. However the justices didn’t handle the deserves of the problems in both case, ruling as a substitute on technicalities. Each are anticipated to return to the excessive court docket as quickly as subsequent yr.
In a single case, challenging the FDA’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, the justices dominated that the group of anti-abortion medical professionals who challenged the drug lacked standing to sue as a result of they failed to point out they had been personally injured by its availability.
However the Supreme Court docket returned the case to the district court docket in Texas the place it was filed, and the GOP attorneys basic of three states — Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri — have joined the case as plaintiffs. Whether or not the courts settle for the states as viable challengers stays to be seen, but when they do, the justices might quickly be requested once more to find out the destiny of the abortion capsule.
The other abortion-related case pitted a federal regulation requiring hospitals to offer emergency care towards Idaho’s strict ban, which permits abortions when a pregnant affected person’s life is at risk — however not in instances wherein it’s needed to guard her well being, together with future fertility.
In that case, the justices apparently failed to achieve any majority settlement, declaring as a substitute that they had been untimely in accepting the case and sending it again to the decrease court docket for additional consideration. That case, too, might return in comparatively brief order.
Harris would even have substantial leeway to speak about what are thought of to be the Biden administration’s core well being coverage accomplishments. These embrace enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits geared toward serving to customers get medical health insurance protection, which had been prolonged via the Inflation Discount Act into 2025, the $35 monthly cap on copays some sufferers pay for insulin, and drug price negotiation in Medicare.
“I believe she is properly positioned. She is core to the administration and can be capable to take credit score for these issues,” mentioned Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase.
That mentioned, it might be arduous for any candidate to get voters to deal with a few of these accomplishments, particularly drug worth efforts.
Whereas the administration has taken some vital steps, “new costly medicine hold popping out,” Mendelson mentioned. “So should you have a look at the notion of customers, they don’t imagine the price of medicine goes down.”
Joseph Antos, of the American Enterprise Institute, mentioned Harris would doubtless say the Biden-Harris administration “is already saving individuals cash” on insulin. However she should transcend these accomplishments and double down on drug pricing and different value points — not speak solely about reproductive rights.
“She’s received to pay attention, if she desires to win, on points which have a broad attraction,” Antos mentioned. “Price is one and entry to therapies is one other huge challenge.”
Samantha Younger of KFF Well being Information contributed to this report.
