Presidential Preview: Abortion

Editor's note: In advance of the 2024 presidential election, The Chronicle is breaking down each candidate’s stance on priority issues, examining their platform and political history to keep voters in the Duke and Durham community informed. This week, we take a look at abortion:

With the 2024 presidential election coming just two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, reproductive rights and abortion access have remained a prominent and divisive issue throughout the campaign.

The Supreme Court issued its controversial decision June 24, 2022, reversing 50 years of precedent in determining the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion. The move left the legality of abortion up to individual states to decide, with some expanding protections for reproductive rights and others enacting restrictions of varying degrees.

Total abortion bans emerged in 14 states soon after Dobbs, some the result of “trigger laws” that allowed a ban to take effect immediately in the event that Roe was ever overturned. Additional restrictions of varying degrees have been instituted in 27 other states in the two years since the ruling.

On the flip side, ballot measures supporting the right to an abortion were approved in swing states like Michigan, while several measures to restrict abortion access — including in historically conservative Kansas — were rejected. The momentum continued into 2023, with Ohio voters approving a state constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion.

Additionally, Democrats exceeded expectations in crucial races in the fall of 2022, retaining their Senate majority and key governorships while also outperforming predictions in the House of Representatives. Post-election polling data revealed that the party’s success was likely due in large part to support from women and swing voters who opposed Dobbs and its aftermath.

Reproductive rights and abortion will likely remain a salient issue come November, and the two leading candidates have starkly different policy stances on the issue.

An April Wall Street Journal poll found that 39% of suburban women — a key demographic in battleground states — consider abortion a “make-or-break issue” for their vote, with the vast majority favoring less restrictive policies. Moreover, Florida, Maryland, New York, Colorado, South Dakota and Nevada already have abortion-related ballot measures scheduled for November.

The North Carolina General Assembly passed Senate Bill 20 in May 2023 through an override of Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto. The law, which went into effect July 1, 2023, enacted a 12-week abortion ban but included exceptions of up to 20 weeks for rape or incest and up to 24 weeks for “life-limiting” fetal abnormalities.

S.B. 20 previously contained a provision banning medication abortions after 10 weeks, which was later blocked by a federal judge. House Bill 190 was passed in June 2023 to protect medication abortion access and clarify other contradictory measures in S.B. 20.

Cooper has continued to advocate for greater abortion access, vowing in May to do "everything [he] can do to protect women’s health care freedom in North Carolina.” He highlighted an ongoing shortage of obstetrician gynecologists in the state, many of whom are fearful of prosecution under the new law for providing “primary care” services.

Polling data indicates that abortion remains a “motivating factor” for North Carolinians, though voters do not display a clear consensus. Opinion over S.B. 20 was divided according to a September 2023 poll from Meredith College, with 47% of voters in favor of the bill and 45% opposed. 

However, a March 2024 poll from WRAL found voters do not prioritize abortion as highly as other policy issues, ranking it ninth out of their top 10 priority issues below such topics as the economy, immigration and healthcare.

Abortion is expected to be a salient issue in statewide races as well, with Planned Parenthood announcing plans to spend $10 million on the 2024 election, more than double the organization’s total spending in the state in 2022. Representatives of the organization said they will focus primarily on defeating the Republican nominee for governor, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, who has committed to pursuing anti-abortion policies if elected.

Kamala Harris

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has long been a strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights and the constitutional right to an abortion. 

The day after announcing her candidacy, Harris reaffirmed her stance as a pro-choice candidate in a July 22 speech in Delaware to her campaign staff. She promised to oppose a national abortion ban and instead sign a federal law enshrining reproductive freedoms, should she be elected in November.

“It is this team here that is going to help this November to elect a majority of members of the United States Congress who agree [that] the government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” Harris said.

Harris’ outspoken support for reproductive rights extends well before Dobbs.

As California’s attorney general, Harris was not faced with much opposition in the fight for reproductive justice, as California has long been considered one of the most progressive states in the union in terms of abortion access.

Nevertheless, Harris signed several amicus briefs in support of abortion rights during her term. Notably, she joined 14 other attorneys general in signing a 2016 amicus brief that advocated for the overturning of a 2013 Texas law, which Harris and her co-signers found placed an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions in the state and did not advance the state’s interest in protecting women’s health. The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in concurrence with the amicus brief.

In 2017, Harris cosponsored the Women's Health Protection Act of 2017 during her time as a California senator. The legislation banned state-level restrictions on abortion access, such as specific medical test requirements and prohibitions on abortions when a woman’s health is at risk.

Then-Sen. Harris also famously grilled Justice Brett Kavanaugh on abortion in his 2019 confirmation hearing for a position on the Supreme Court, to which he was nominated by then-President Donald Trump.

“Can you think of any laws that give [the] government the power to make decisions about the male body?” Harris asked. 

Kavanaugh hesitated for several seconds, prompting Harris to rephrase and restate her question multiple times before he eventually responded that he was “not thinking of any right now.” Kavanaugh later joined the 6-3 majority to overturn Roe.

During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris called for a “preclearance requirement,” which would require states and localities with a history of unconstitutionally restricting abortion access to clear their abortion laws with the Justice Department before they fully took effect.

“We cannot tolerate a perspective that is about going backward and not understanding women have agency, women have value, women have authority to make decisions about their own lives and their own bodies,” Harris said in a May 2019 MSNBC appearance.

As vice president, Harris became the White House’s most powerful abortion access advocate, championing women’s reproductive rights with a fervor that President Joe Biden’s rocky history on the issue prevented him from emulating.

In the aftermath of Dobbs, Harris held strategy meetings with state-level Democrats in areas facing abortion restrictions and frequently promoted the administration’s pro-choice agenda at public events. She also embarked on a “reproductive freedoms tour” in January, which was designed to “bring together thousands of people to fight for the freedom of every American to make decisions about their own body” and began on the 51st anniversary of Roe.

Harris reportedly became the first president or vice president to visit in abortion clinic in March after an appearance in her now-running mate Gov. Tim Walz’s home state of Minnesota.

As part of Biden’s reelection campaign, Harris’ views were represented by several campaign advertisements that put abortion at the forefront of messaging, attempting to leverage the issue as a “potent political weapon” against Trump.

One notable ad, released June 23, featured testimonial from ​​Kaitlyn Joshua, a Louisiana woman who was turned away from two emergency rooms during her miscarriage at 11 weeks of pregnancy. Joshua described her experience as “a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Longtime reproductive rights advocates have recognized Harris’ focus on the issue during her vice presidency and expect her to make expanding abortion access a cornerstone of her candidacy and potential presidency.

“There is no question that having her at the top of the ticket helps really elevate this issue,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who worked on Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaign teams.

Donald Trump

Presumptive Republican nominee Trump has a somewhat ambiguous history on the issue of abortion, though he has largely supported increased restrictions in recent years.

Though he professed himself to be “very pro-choice” in 1993, by 2011, Trump had become vocally pro-life. In his 2016 presidential campaign, he said he supported punishment for women seeking abortions and pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe.

Trump followed through on the second commitment, nominating three Supreme Court justices during his time in office who later voted to overturn the historic case: Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 and Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. 

Trump also reinstated the Mexico City Policy in 2017, which had been done by each of his Republican predecessors dating back to Ronald Reagan. The anti-abortion requirement was applied to all global health aid programs.

In 2019, the then-president further delivered on his promise to curtail federal funding by authorizing new abortion counseling rules prohibiting family planning organizations from receiving federal funds if they provided or referred patients for an abortion, except in cases of medical emergencies, rape and incest. The policy, which pushed Planned Parenthood and other organizations out of the federal government’s Title X family planning program, was later rescinded by the Biden administration in 2021.

Trump released a statement April 8 on his social media app Truth Social, stating that abortion rights and access should be left up to the states. The former president avoided commenting on whether he would support a national abortion ban.

“​​The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land,” Trump said in the video. “In this case, the law of the state.”

When asked in an interview with Time Magazine if he was comfortable with the law prosecuting women who have abortions outside the legal limits, Trump replied that “it’s irrelevant whether [he’s] comfortable or not.”

“It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions,” he said. The former president later added that he sees his judicial legacy as directly responsible for Dobbs.

The former president’s recent rhetoric about leaving abortion up to individual states to decide is inconsistent from statements he has previously made on the campaign trail. In a March 19 radio interview, Trump suggested he would support a federal abortion ban after 15 weeks. 

“We are deeply disappointed in President Trump’s position,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of nonprofit Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, in response to the Time interview. Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, described Trump’s position as a “slap in the face to the millions of pro-life Americans.” Pence has notably not endorsed Trump in his bid for re-election.

Abortion remains a critical factor in Trump’s running mate selection, as many of those on Trump’s short list — including North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio — firmly support a national abortion ban. 

Other candidates

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s abortion platform aims to provide Americans with more family planning choices to reduce abortions “by choice, not by force,” with policies including a subsidized daycare initiative and strengthened adoption infrastructure. Kennedy opposes abortion after the point of fetal viability, differing from his running mate Nicole Shanahan who expressed support for a federal limit between 15 and 18 weeks.

Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver believes abortion is “the province of individual choice and bodily autonomy.” He also opposes nixing the Hyde Amendment and has pledged to decrease the cost of adoption.

Independent candidate Cornel West supports “unfettered access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare,” including ensuring safe and legal abortion, contraception and fertility treatments are available for all women.

Prospective Green Party candidate Jill Stein has promised to codify Roe, repeal the Hyde Amendment and ensure full reproductive rights and bodily autonomy for women if elected.

Editor’s note: Following the announcement that Kamala Harris would replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee, this article was updated Aug. 9 with information regarding her stance on abortion.

The original entry for Biden is below.

Joe Biden

President Joseph Biden, who was first elected to the Senate mere months before Roe was decided in 1973, was skeptical of a national right to abortion for much of his political career.

Throughout his time as a senator, Biden backed the Hyde Amendment — a measure barring federal funding for abortions that was first introduced in 1976 and is renewed annually. He reversed his position on the amendment in June 2019 after facing intense criticism on the subject in the early days of his 2020 presidential bid.

​​“If I believe healthcare is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code,” Biden said at the time.

The president has long ascribed his wavering stance on abortion to his Roman Catholic upbringing, firmly supporting Roe throughout his career but refraining from pushing further on the subject. In 2007, Biden described his position as “middle of the road” but added that he would not “impose [his] view on the rest of society.”

Just over a week after his presidential inauguration in 2021, Biden rescinded former president Donald Trump’s reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, which required foreign nongovernmental organizations to not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” as a condition of receiving U.S. funding for family planning efforts.

On July 8, 2022, two weeks after the Dobbs decision, Biden signed Executive Order 14076, titled “Protecting Access to Reproductive Healthcare Services.” The policy aimed to safeguard access to reproductive healthcare services, defend patient privacy and information access, protect patient security and safety and establish a federal task force to manage federal work around reproductive healthcare.

Biden had pushed Congress to pass a bill that year codifying the right to an abortion, but the attempt failed in May when Senate Republicans filibustered the bill after it had been passed by the House.

One year later, Biden signed another executive order titled Strengthening Access to Affordable, High-Quality Contraception and Family Planning Services, which introduced additional protections for contraception access in the wake of Dobbs.

Despite his lukewarm stance on abortion in the past, Biden’s 2024 platform is firmly pro-choice. If reelected, he has pledged to prevent a nationwide abortion ban from passing, a promise that stands in stark contrast to messaging from his opponent.

The Biden-Harris campaign’s platform prioritizes “safeguarding access to abortion, including medication abortion, fighting to ensure access to emergency medical care, expanding access to contraception, defending a woman’s right to travel for medical care and protecting patient privacy.”

Biden has expressed his intention to restore Roe if given a second term. In a January post on X, the president stated that if given a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, the federal government would “pass a new law to restore and protect Roe v. Wade,” which he would sign “immediately.”

The Biden campaign has also released several campaign advertisements recently that put abortion at the forefront of messaging, attempting to leverage the issue as a “potent political weapon” against Trump.

One notable ad, released June 23, features testimonial from ​​Kaitlyn Joshua, a Louisiana woman who was turned away from two emergency rooms during her miscarriage at 11 weeks of pregnancy. Joshua described her experience as “a direct result of Donald Trump overturning Roe v. Wade.”

---