The candidates are being asked about abortion and reproductive rights, a key issue in the 2024 campaign. Here’s a look at where each candidate stands on the issue.
Kamala Harris’ stance: Harris took on the lead role of championing abortion rights for the Biden administration after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022. This past January, she started a “reproductive freedoms tour” to multiple states, including a stop in Minnesota thought to be the first by a sitting US president or vice president at an abortion clinic.
On abortion access, Harris embraced more progressive policies than Biden in the 2020 campaign, as a candidate criticizing his previous support for the Hyde Amendment, a measure that blocks federal funds from being used for most abortions. Policy experts suggested that although Harris’ current policies on abortion and reproductive rights may not differ significantly from Biden’s, as a result of her national tour and her own focus on maternal health, she may be a stronger messenger.
The issue was a key part of the programming at the Democratic National Convention this summer and Harris’ campaign announced the launch of a 50-stop bus tour last month — starting in Trump’s backyard of Palm Beach, Florida — focused on reproductive health care.
Donald Trump’s stance: Trump last month said he will not support a ballot referendum to expand abortion access in his home state of Florida just 24 hours after suggesting he might. The rush to clarify his stance followed intense blowback from anti-abortion advocates online, leading to concerns among Republicans that Trump’s continued waffling on abortion might lose him some deeply religious voters in a tightening race.
Trump, whose ever-evolving views on reproductive health have traversed every side of the debate, has long expressed concerns about the political fallout from the 2022 Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion. Though he has sought credit for installing the three conservative justices that tipped the court to overturn Roe v. Wade, Trump earlier this year said future questions about access should be left to the states.
Trump said in April that he would not sign a federal abortion ban and has taken the position that abortion laws should be decided by states. He’s also said that he supports exceptions in cases of rape and incest and when the life of the mother is under threat.
Trump said in May that he did not support banning birth control. He previously said that he was “looking at” contraceptives when asked if he supported restrictions. In August, Trump announced plans to make either the government or insurance companies pay for in vitro fertilization treatments. He did not specify how the treatments would be paid for.
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