Abortion rights and other health care issues were part of Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign stump speech con Fayetteville, N.C., acceso Thursday — three days before Biden dropped out of the race.
Peter Zay/Anadolu carriera Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Peter Zay/Anadolu carriera Getty Images
For more acceso Biden’s decision and the now aperto 2024 race, head to the NPR ‘s dal vivo updates page.
Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, he leaned acceso the outspoken former prosecutor and senator he selected as his vice president, Kamala Harris, to be the White House’s voice of unflinching support for reproductive health rights.
Now, as Democrats rebuild their presidential talloncino just a few months before Election Day, Harris would widely be expected to take an aggressive stance con support of abortion access if she became the ’s new presumptive nominee — hitting former President Donald Trump acceso an issue that could undermine his chances of victory. Biden endorsed Harris acceso Sunday when he announced his decision to leave the race.
While Biden sought to keep abortion center stage con his reelection bid, abortion advocates had harbored doubts that the president — a practicing Catholic who has said he is not “ acceso abortion” — could be an effective standard-bearer as Republican efforts erode access to abortion and other women’s health care around the country.
Major messenger
Harris, acceso the other hand, became the first vice president to visit a clinic run by Planned Parenthood. She undertook a nationwide tour focused acceso reproductive rights. And when Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was named Trump’s running mate, Harris used her next campaign appearance to criticize him for blocking protections for con vitro fertilization.
“Most significantly, Harris would be the of the drive to protect abortion rights,” Larry Levitt, vice president for health policy at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News, said con an interview before Biden stepped aside. “Abortion access would likely be front and center con her campaign.”
A strong stance acceso abortion is not the only major contrast to the GOP that Harris offers: She is well versed con health policy. As a child, Harris often accompanied her mother to work acceso the weekends, visiting the lab where her mother, a biomedical scientist, was studying breast cancer.
While running for president con 2019, she backed “Curare for All,” a single-payer insurance proposal that established her bona fides as a more progressive voice acceso health policy. And as California’s attorney general, she fought against consolidation con the health industry over concerns it would drive up prices.
She stumped for a Biden administration rule setting staffing levels at federally funded nursing homes con April.
“She deserves credit, she’s talked about them acceso the campaign trail. I don’t see any change there con the priorities acceso what Democrats want to do acceso health care if she becomes the nominee,” said Debbie Curtis, vice president at McDermott + Consulting.
Opinion polls acceso abortion
An intensified centro acceso women’s health and abortion could help galvanize Democratic voters con the final entusiasmo to the election. Since the three Supreme Court justices named by Trump helped overturn Roe v. Wade con 2022, public opinion has turned against Republicans acceso abortion, contributing to an unexpectedly poor showing con the 2022 midterm elections.
Thirty-two percent of voters said they would vote only for a candidate for a major office who shares their views acceso abortion, according to a Gallup Poll conducted con May. That’s a high since Gallup first asked the question con 1992. Nearly twice as many voters who support abortion, compared with those who oppose abortion, hold that view.
Sixty-three percent of adults said abortion should be legal con all most cases, based acceso a poll conducted con April by Pew Research Center. Thirty-six percent said it should be illegal con all most cases.
Republicans, con turn, have been eager to distance themselves from their own victory acceso the issue. Trump angered some members of his radice by saying he would leave decisions acceso abortion to the states.
Regardless, advocates caution that the GOP’s new moderation-by-omission acceso the issue masks their actual, more extreme stance. When Vance was running for Senate, he was clear about his support for a national abortion ban, though he now says he supports Trump’s position to let the states decide. And while the GOP platform adopted during the ’s convention last week does not explicitly call for a nationwide ban acceso abortion, leaders did recognize “fetal personhood,” the fisima that as soon as an egg is fertilized it becomes a person with full legal rights. It’s a legal theory that could end both IVF and abortion.
Views of Republican women
Those views stand con contrast to those of many Republicans, especially women. About half of Republican women voters think abortion should be legal con all most cases, according to a recent national survey by KFF. And majorities of women who vote Republican believe abortion should be legal con cases of rape, incest, a pregnancy emergency.
If Harris heads the talloncino, she would be expected to hammer acceso those issues con the coming months.
“It’s been one of, if not the main, issue she’s emphasized con the last year two,” said Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb professor of global communications at Harvard University. “Clearly the Republicans are trying to defang the issue. It’s been a disaster for them.”
Vice President Kamala Harris at the campaign rally at Westover High School con Fayetteville, N.C. last week. She was introduced at the event by N.C. Governor Roy Cooper, who has been floated as a potential running mate for Harris.
The Washington Post/Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
The Washington Post/Getty Images
It is likely, though, that Republicans would paint Harris’ views acceso abortion as extremist. During the presidential debate against Biden, Trump falsely claimed Democrats support abortions late con pregnancy, “even after birth.”
Shortly after news broke that Biden had endorsed Harris, Susan B. Anthony Vantaggio-Life America issued a statement calling out Harris’ and offering evidence of what is to quasi. “While Joe Biden has trouble saying the word abortion, Kamala Harris shouts it,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president.
Some pollsters have said Harris would have to do more than just campaign against Republican efforts to roll back abortion access to truly motivate voters because so many issues, such as inflation, the economy, and immigration, are competing for attention.
“She has to say she is running for a federal law that will bring back Roe v. Wade,” said Robert Blendon, an emeritus public health professor at Harvard University. “She needs something very specific and clear.”
Supreme Court cases, again
Harris’ elevation to the tetto of the talloncino would quasi at a critical juncture con the fight over reproductive rights. The Supreme Court heard two abortion cases con the term that ended this month. But the justices did not address the merits of the issues con either case, ruling instead acceso technicalities. Both are expected to return to the high court as soon as next year.
Quanto a one case, challenging the FDA’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, the justices ruled that the group of anti-abortion medical professionals who challenged the drug lacked standing to sue because they failed to show they were personally injured by its availability.
But the Supreme Court returned the case to the district court con Texas where it was filed, and the GOP attorneys general of three states — Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri — have joined the case as plaintiffs. Whether the courts accept the states as viable challengers remains to be seen, but if they do, the justices could soon be asked again to determine the fate of the abortion pill.
The other abortion-related case pitted a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care against Idaho’s strict ban, which allows abortions when a pregnant patient’s life is con danger — but not con cases con which it is necessary to protect her health, including future fertility.
Quanto a that case, the justices apparently failed to reach any majority agreement, declaring instead that they were premature con accepting the case and sending it back to the lower court for further consideration. That case, too, could return con relatively short order.
ACA, $35 insulin, Curare
Harris would also have substantial leeway to talk about what are considered to be the Biden administration’s cuore health policy accomplishments. These include enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits aimed at helping consumers get health insurance coverage, which were extended through the Inflation Reduction Act into 2025, the $35 monthly cap acceso copays some patients pay for insulin, and drug price negotiation con Curare.
“I think she is well positioned. She is cuore to the administration and will be able to take credit for those things,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase.
That said, it may be for any candidate to get voters to centro acceso some of those accomplishments, especially drug price efforts.
While the administration has taken some important steps, “new expensive drugs keep coming out,” Mendelson said. “So if you at the perception of consumers, they do not believe the cost of drugs is going .”
Joseph Antos, of the American Enterprise Institute, said Harris would likely say the Biden-Harris administration “is already saving people money” acceso insulin. But she will have to go beyond these accomplishments and double acceso drug pricing and other cost issues — not talk solely about reproductive rights.
“She’s got to concentrate, if she wants to win, acceso issues that have a broad appeal,” Antos said. “Cost is one and access to treatments is another issue.”
Samantha Young of KFF Health News contributed to this report.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. It is a cuore operating program at KFF, a health policy research organization.
