Reproductive rights organizations have been quick to come out in support of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee after President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he would drop out of the presidential race and endorse Harris instead.
Harris could be an even stronger proponent for reproductive health care than President Biden, who has been hesitant to speak directly about abortion during his presidency. Biden, a practicing Catholic, has said that he isn’t “big on abortion” and even opposed it in his early days as a senator, but his views have evolved over the years.
“We’re incredibly excited that we have somebody who has a long track record in fighting for abortion access as potentially being the person who’s at the top of the presidential ticket for the Democratic Party,” said Nourbese Flint, president of All* in Action Fund, a group that supports public insurance coverage of abortion, in an interview with WIRED.
Elisa Wells, cofounder of the nonprofit Plan C, which provides information on self-managed, at-home abortion with pills, told WIRED that she expects Harris to bring “strong leadership” on reproductive rights and have a “bold agenda” to restore legal access to abortion.
“Abortion rights groups will certainly be thrilled to have a candidate who will forcefully campaign on reproductive health access,” wrote Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonprofit health policy organization, in an email to WIRED.
Access to abortion has dwindled across the US following the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 50-year-old landmark case that protected the right to have an abortion. Three justices appointed by former president Donald Trump—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—were among the five who made up the majority opinion to repeal Roe. The decision opened the door for states to ban abortion outright, and more than a dozen have done so.
Since the decision, Vice President Harris has become the Biden administration’s voice for reproductive rights. In January, she set out on a nationwide tour to highlight the harms of state abortion bans. During a kickoff speech for that tour, Harris recounted an event in high school that led her to become a prosecutor specializing in crimes against women and children: She learned that one of her best friends was being sexually abused by her stepfather.
In the speech, she referred to abortion access as a “health care crisis” and shared the story of a Wisconsin couple, Meaghan and Joe, who discovered they were pregnant and that the fetus had a severe genetic disorder that put Meaghan’s life at risk. Meaghan could not get an abortion in Wisconsin and ultimately had to travel to Minnesota to receive care.
At the event, Harris said the Biden administration was fighting to protect women’s access to reproductive care. “We trust women. We trust women to make decisions about their own bodies. We trust women to know what is in their own best interest,” she said.
Despite Biden’s discomfort around the issue, his administration has nonetheless supported policies to protect and expand access to reproductive health care. During his tenure, the Food and Drug Administration lifted the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pill mifepristone, allowing women to get abortion medication via telehealth services, and defended access to the pill when it was challenged in the courts. Biden administration officials also reminded insurers of their obligation to cover contraception under the Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010. And Biden vowed to veto a national abortion ban if Congress attempted to pass one.
Emily’s List, a political action committee that raises money for female candidates who support abortion rights, has already backed Harris, with its president, Jessica Mackler, calling her the “most powerful advocate and messenger on this issue.”
Reproductive Freedom for All, the oldest existing abortion rights advocacy group in the United States, formerly called NARAL Pro-Choice America, has also endorsed Harris. “There is nobody who has fought as hard for abortion rights and access, and we are proud to endorse her in this race,” its president and CEO, Mini Timmaraju, said in a statement.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund has not officially endorsed Harris yet, as that decision must be ratified by local Planned Parenthood health centers. But the fund’s president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, released a statement praising the Biden administration’s record on protecting reproductive freedoms. In it, Johnson applauded Harris for putting “the needs and experiences of patients and providers front and center,” adding that Harris was the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic. The Action Fund will announce its endorsement after a “rigorous endorsement process.”
The abortion issue could bring more Democrats to the polls this fall. According to a May Gallup poll, a record-high 32 percent of US voters say they would vote only for a candidate for major office who shares their views on abortion.
Former president Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has said a federal ban on abortion is not needed and instead supports states making their own decisions on whether to allow abortion.
Polling suggests that most Americans support abortion. One poll, conducted by Pew Research in April, found that 63 percent of Americans said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 36 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Among Republicans and independents who lean Republican, 57 percent said abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, while 85 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Updated 7-23-2024 5:00 pm BST: Nourbese Flint’s affiliation was corrected.
