Abortion rights and different well being care points had been a part of Vice President Kamala Harris’s marketing campaign stump speech in Fayetteville, N.C., on Thursday — three days earlier than Biden dropped out of the race.
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Peter Zay/Anadolu by way of Getty Photos
All through Joe Biden’s presidency, he leaned on the outspoken former prosecutor and senator he chosen as his vice chairman, Kamala Harris, to be the White Home’s voice of unflinching help for reproductive well being rights.
Now, as Democrats rebuild their presidential ticket just some months earlier than Election Day, Harris would broadly be anticipated to take an aggressive stance in help of abortion entry if she turned the get together’s new presumptive nominee — hitting former President Donald Trump on a difficulty that might undermine his probabilities of victory. Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday when he introduced his determination to depart the race.
Whereas 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 “massive 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.
Main messenger
Harris, however, turned the primary vice chairman to go to a clinic run by Deliberate Parenthood. She undertook a nationwide tour targeted on reproductive rights. And when Sen. J.D. 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 could be the face of the drive to guard abortion rights,” Larry Levitt, govt vice chairman 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 middle in her marketing campaign.”
A powerful stance on abortion is just not the one main distinction to the GOP that Harris gives: She is properly versed in well being coverage. As a toddler, Harris typically accompanied her mom to work on the weekends, visiting the lab the place her mom, a biomedical scientist, was learning 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 legal professional common, she fought towards 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,” mentioned Debbie Curtis, vice chairman at McDermott + Consulting.
Opinion polls on abortion
An intensified deal with girls’s well being and abortion might assist impress Democratic voters within the remaining dash to the election. For the reason that three Supreme Court docket justices named by Trump helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, public opinion has turned towards Republicans on abortion, contributing to an unexpectedly poor displaying within the 2022 midterm elections.
Thirty-two p.c of voters mentioned they might vote just for a candidate for a serious workplace who shares their views on abortion, based on a Gallup Ballot carried out in Could. 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 mentioned abortion must be authorized in all or most instances, primarily based on a ballot carried out in April by Pew Analysis Heart. Thirty-six p.c mentioned it must be unlawful in all or most instances.
Republicans, in flip, have been wanting to distance themselves from their very own victory on the problem. 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 problem masks their precise, extra excessive stance. When Vance was working for Senate, he was clear about his help for a nationwide abortion ban, although he now says he helps Trump’s place to let the states resolve. And whereas the GOP platform adopted through the get together’s conference final week doesn’t explicitly name for a nationwide ban on abortion, get together leaders did acknowledge “fetal personhood,” the concept as quickly as an egg is fertilized it turns into an individual with full authorized rights. It is a authorized idea that might finish each IVF and abortion.
Views of Republican girls
These views stand in distinction to these of many Republicans, particularly girls. About half of Republican girls voters assume abortion must be authorized in all or most instances, based on a latest nationwide survey by KFF. And majorities of ladies who vote Republican consider abortion must be authorized in instances 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 primary, difficulty 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 problem. It’s been a catastrophe for them.”
Vice President Kamala Harris on the marketing campaign rally at Westover Excessive Faculty in Fayetteville, N.C. final week. She was launched on the occasion by N.C. Governor Roy Cooper, who has been floated as a possible working mate for Harris.
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It’s doubtless, although, that Republicans would paint Harris’ views on abortion as extremist. Through the presidential debate towards Biden, Trump falsely claimed Democrats help abortions late in being pregnant, “even after start.”
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 return. “Whereas Joe Biden has hassle 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 inspire voters as a result of so many points, reminiscent of inflation, the economic system, and immigration, are competing for consideration.
“She has to say she is working for a federal legislation 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.”
Supreme Court docket instances, once more
Harris’ elevation to the highest of the ticket would come at a vital 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 deal with the deserves of the problems in both case, ruling as an alternative on technicalities. Each are anticipated to return to the excessive court docket as quickly as subsequent yr.
In a single case, difficult the FDA’s 2000 approval of the abortion tablet 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 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 common 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 different abortion-related case pitted a federal legislation requiring hospitals to supply emergency care towards 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 mandatory to guard her well being, together with future fertility.
In that case, the justices apparently failed to succeed in any majority settlement, declaring as an alternative 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 quick order.
ACA, $35 insulin, Medicare
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 embody enhanced Inexpensive Care Act tax credit aimed toward serving to shoppers get medical insurance protection, which had been prolonged by way of the Inflation Discount Act into 2025, the $35 month-to-month cap on copays some sufferers pay for insulin, and drug value negotiation in Medicare.
“I believe she is properly positioned. She is core to the administration and can have the ability to take credit score for these issues,” mentioned Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Well being, a subsidiary of J.P. Morgan Chase.
That mentioned, it could be arduous for any candidate to get voters to deal with a few of these accomplishments, particularly drug value efforts.
Whereas the administration has taken some vital steps, “new costly medicine maintain popping out,” Mendelson mentioned. “So for those who take a look at the notion of shoppers, they don’t consider 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 price points — not discuss solely about reproductive rights.
“She’s acquired to pay attention, if she desires to win, on points which have a broad enchantment,” Antos mentioned. “Value is one and entry to therapies is one other massive difficulty.”
Samantha Younger of KFF Well being Information contributed to this report.
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points. It’s a core working program at KFF, a well being coverage analysis group.
