Throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, he leaned on the outspoken former prosecutor and senator he chosen as his vp, Kamala Harris, to be the White House’s voice of unflinching assist for reproductive well being rights.
Now, as Democrats rebuild their presidential ticket just some months earlier than Election Day, Harris would extensively be anticipated to take an aggressive stance in assist of abortion entry if she turned the occasion’s new presumptive nominee — hitting former President Donald Trump on a problem that would undermine his possibilities of victory. Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday when he introduced his choice to go away the race.
While Biden sought to maintain abortion middle stage in his reelection bid, abortion advocates had harbored doubts that the president — a practising Catholic who has mentioned he’s not “big on abortion” — might be an efficient standard-bearer as Republican efforts erode entry to abortion and different ladies’s well being care across the nation.
Harris, alternatively, turned the primary vp to go to a clinic run by the Planned 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 significantly, Harris would be the face of the drive to protect abortion rights,” Larry Levitt, govt vp for well being coverage at KFF, a well being info nonprofit that features KFF Health News, mentioned in an interview earlier than Biden stepped apart. “Abortion access would likely be front and center in her campaign.”
A powerful stance on abortion just isn’t the one main distinction to the GOP that Harris presents: She is properly 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.
While 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 legal professional basic, she fought in opposition to consolidation within the well being business 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, she’s talked about them on the campaign trail. I don’t see any change there in the priorities on what Democrats want to do on health care if she becomes the nominee,” mentioned Debbie Curtis, vp at McDermott + Consulting.
An intensified give attention to ladies’s well being and abortion might assist provoke Democratic voters within the closing dash to the election. Since the three Supreme Court 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 % 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 file excessive since Gallup first requested the query in 1992. Nearly 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 prior to now about his support for a national abortion ban. And whereas the GOP platform adopted in the course of the occasion’s conference final week might not explicitly name for a nationwide ban on abortion, party leaders’ recognition of “fetal personhood,” the concept that as quickly as an egg is fertilized it turns into an individual with full authorized rights, would create such a ban robotically if the Supreme Court discovered it constitutional.
Those 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, based on 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 one of if not the main issue she’s emphasized in the last year or two,” mentioned Matthew Baum, Marvin Kalb professor of worldwide communications at Harvard University. “Clearly the Republicans are trying to defang the issue. It’s been a disaster for them.”
It is probably going, although, that Republicans would paint Harris’ views on abortion as extremist. During the presidential debate in opposition to Biden, Trump falsely claimed Democrats assist abortions late in being pregnant, “even after birth.”
Shortly after information broke that Biden had endorsed Harris, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America issued an announcement calling out Harris’ file and providing proof of what’s to return. “While Joe Biden has trouble saying the word abortion, Kamala Harris shouts it,” mentioned Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president.
Some pollsters have mentioned Harris must do extra than simply marketing campaign in opposition to Republican efforts to roll again abortion entry to really encourage voters as a result of so many points, comparable to inflation, the economic system, and immigration, are competing for consideration.
“She has to say she is running for a federal law that will bring back Roe v. Wade,” mentioned Robert Blendon, an emeritus public well being professor at Harvard University. “She needs something very specific and clear.”
Harris’ elevation to the highest of the ticket would come at a vital juncture within the struggle over reproductive rights.
The Supreme Court heard two abortion instances within the time period that ended this month. But the justices didn’t handle the deserves of the problems in both case, ruling as a substitute on technicalities. Both are anticipated to return to the excessive courtroom as quickly as subsequent yr.
In one 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.
But the Supreme Court returned the case to the district courtroom 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 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 regulation 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 instances during which it’s vital 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 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-about to be the Biden administration’s core well being coverage accomplishments. These embrace enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits aimed toward serving to shoppers get medical insurance protection, which had been prolonged by means of the Inflation Reduction Act into 2025, the $35 monthly cap on copays some sufferers pay for insulin, and drug price negotiation in Medicare.
“I think she is well positioned. She is core to the administration and will be able to take credit for those things,” 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 give attention to a few of these accomplishments, particularly drug worth efforts.
While the administration has taken some essential steps, “new expensive drugs keep coming out,” Mendelson mentioned. “So if you look at the perception of consumers, they do not believe the cost of drugs is going down.”
Joseph Antos, of the American Enterprise Institute, mentioned Harris would possible say the Biden-Harris administration “is already saving people money” on insulin. But she should transcend these accomplishments and double down on drug pricing and different price points — not speak solely about reproductive rights.
“She’s got to concentrate, if she wants to win, on issues that have a broad appeal,” Antos mentioned. “Cost is one and access to treatments is another big issue.”
Samantha Young of KFF Health News contributed to this report.
Stephanie Armour:
sarmour@kff.org,
@StephArmour1
Julie Appleby:
jappleby@kff.org,
@Julie_appleby
Julie Rovner:
jrovner@kff.org,
@jrovner
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