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 help for reproductive well being rights.
Now, as Democrats rebuild their presidential ticket only a few months earlier than Election Day, Harris would broadly be anticipated to take an aggressive stance in help of abortion entry if she grew to become the social gathering’s new presumptive nominee — hitting former President Donald Trump on a problem that might undermine his probabilities of victory. Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday when he introduced his choice to go away the race.
Whereas Biden sought to maintain abortion heart stage in his reelection bid, abortion advocates had harbored doubts that the president — a practising Catholic who has stated he’s not “big on abortion” — may very well be an efficient standard-bearer as Republican efforts erode entry to abortion and different girls’s well being care across the nation.
Harris, however, grew to become the primary vp to go to a clinic run by the Deliberate Parenthood Federation of America. She undertook a nationwide tour centered on reproductive rights. And when Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was named Trump’s operating mate, Harris used her subsequent marketing campaign look to criticize him for blocking protections for in vitro fertilization.
“Most importantly, Harris could be the face of the drive to guard abortion rights,” Larry Levitt, govt vp for well being coverage at KFF, a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Well being Information, stated in an interview earlier than Biden stepped apart. “Abortion entry would possible be entrance and heart in her marketing campaign.”
A powerful stance on abortion is just not the one main distinction to the GOP that Harris affords: She is nicely versed in well being coverage. As a toddler, Harris usually accompanied her mom to work on the weekends, visiting the lab the place she was learning breast most cancers.
Whereas operating 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 normal, she fought in opposition to consolidation within the well being trade over considerations it might 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 need to do on well being care if she turns into the nominee,” stated Debbie Curtis, vp at McDermott + Consulting.
An intensified concentrate on girls’s well being and abortion might assist provoke Democratic voters within the closing 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 in opposition to Republicans on abortion, even contributing to an unexpectedly poor showing within the 2022 midterm elections.
Thirty-two p.c of voters stated they’d 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. Practically twice as many citizens who help abortion, in contrast with those that oppose abortion, maintain that view.
Sixty-three p.c of adults stated abortion needs to be authorized in all or most circumstances, primarily based on a ballot carried out in April by Pew Research Center. Thirty-six p.c stated it needs to be unlawful in all or most circumstances.
Republicans, in flip, have been eager to distance themselves from their very own victory on the problem. Trump angered some members of his base by saying he would go away selections on abortion to the states.
Regardless, advocates warning that the GOP’s new moderation-by-omission on the problem 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 could 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 mechanically if the Supreme Court docket discovered it constitutional.
These views stand in distinction to these of many Republicans, particularly girls. About half of Republican girls voters suppose abortion needs to be authorized in all or most circumstances, in accordance with a recent national survey by KFF. And majorities of girls who vote Republican consider abortion needs to be authorized in circumstances of rape, incest, or a being pregnant emergency.
If Harris heads the ticket, she could be anticipated to hammer on these points within the coming months.
“It’s been one among if not the principle problem she’s emphasised within the final yr or two,” stated Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb professor of worldwide communications at Harvard College. “Clearly the Republicans try to defang the problem. It’s been a catastrophe for them.”
It’s possible, although, that Republicans would paint Harris’ views on abortion as extremist. In the course of the presidential debate in opposition to Biden, Trump falsely claimed Democrats help abortions late in being pregnant, “even after beginning.”
Shortly after information broke that Biden had endorsed Harris, Susan B. Anthony Professional-Life America issued an announcement 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,” stated Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president.
Some pollsters have stated Harris must do extra than simply marketing campaign in opposition to Republican efforts to roll again abortion entry to actually encourage voters as a result of so many points, equivalent to inflation, the economic system, and immigration, are competing for consideration.
“She has to say she is operating for a federal legislation that can convey again Roe v. Wade,” stated 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 combat over reproductive rights.
The Supreme Court docket heard two abortion circumstances 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 courtroom 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 indicate they have been personally injured by its availability.
However the Supreme Court docket returned the case to the district courtroom in Texas the place it was filed, and the GOP attorneys normal 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 tablet.
The other abortion-related case pitted a federal legislation requiring hospitals to offer emergency care in opposition to Idaho’s strict ban, which permits abortions when a pregnant affected person’s life is in peril — however not in circumstances by which 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 have been untimely in accepting the case and sending it again to the decrease courtroom 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 embody enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits geared toward serving to shoppers get medical insurance protection, which have 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 nicely positioned. She is core to the administration and can be capable of take credit score for these issues,” stated Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase.
That stated, it might be laborious for any candidate to get voters to concentrate on a few of these accomplishments, particularly drug value efforts.
Whereas the administration has taken some necessary steps, “new costly medicine maintain popping out,” Mendelson stated. “So when you have a look at the notion of shoppers, they don’t consider the price of medicine goes down.”
Joseph Antos, of the American Enterprise Institute, stated Harris would possible 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 price points — not speak solely about reproductive rights.
“She’s obtained to pay attention, if she needs to win, on points which have a broad attraction,” Antos stated. “Value is one and entry to therapies is one other large problem.”
Samantha Younger of KFF Well being Information contributed to this report.
