Harris/Abortion 2024
Kamala says 'trust women'
Well, it’s happened: President Joe Biden has dropped out of the race, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
That doesn’t mean Harris is the nominee—she still needs to officially secure the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August. And while Biden naming Harris indicates that the party is likely to rally around her in the interest of presenting a united front, some Democrats believe that even with the limited time we have before November, a competition is better than anointing a candidate. (I appreciate what Joan Walsh says about this.)
While we wait to find out what happens next, let’s get into Harris and abortion rights.
As I’m sure you know already, there’s a stark contrast between Harris and President Biden on the issue. Biden’s marked lack of enthusiasm for abortion rights—which sometimes borders on seeming distaste—has been a real problem in his campaign and presidency.
The president only gave abortion rights 30 seconds in his 2023 State of the Union speech, and often avoided saying the word at all. (In his 2024 SOTU, Biden even deviated from his prepared remarks to drop ‘abortion.’) When Biden has talked about abortion, he’s often included caveats about not supporting “abortion on demand.”
Harris, on the other hand, has been the much more abortion-positive public face of the administration’s reproductive rights stance. Over the last few months, the vice president has been on a “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” speaking tour, meeting with everyone from activists and local legislators to doctors and college students.
Unlike Biden, she’s been direct and enthusiastic: A POLITICO comparison of their remarks on Florida’s abortion ban, for example, revealed that while Biden mentioned the word 'abortion' twice, Harris used it 15 times—sometimes pairing it with the phrase “Trump abortion bans.”
That’s the other thing Harris has done remarkably well: reminded voters that it’s Donald Trump who got us into this mess to begin with. At the kick-off of her speaking tour, Harris laid into the disgraced former president for saying he’s ‘proud’ of overturning Roe:
“Proud that women across our nation are suffering? Proud that women have been robbed of a fundamental freedom? Proud that doctors could be thrown in prison for caring for their patients? That young women today have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers? How dare he?”
And when Harris railed against Florida’s ban in Jacksonville this Spring, she warned that another Trump presidency would mean “more bans, more suffering, less freedom.”
“But we are not going to let that happen. Because we trust women. We trust women to know what is in their own best interest. And women trust all of us to fight to protect their most fundamental freedom.”
Harris has repeated that refrain of ‘trusting women’ often. While visiting a Minnesota abortion clinic in March—a historic first—she blasted Republicans for “believ[ing] they are in a better position to tell women what they need…and what is in their best interest.”
“We have to be a nation that trusts women,” Harris said.
It’s a phrase of particular importance to those in the abortion rights movement, in large part because murdered abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was known for wearing a button that read, ‘Trust Women.’ The slogan also conveys perhaps the most important tenet in reproductive health care: When it comes to abortion, no one is better suited to make a decision than the person carrying the pregnancy.
Harris has that trust in people, and clearly has for some time. From later abortion patient advocate Erika Christensen of Patient Forward:
“I’ll just say this. Back when we were shlepping to Hill offices to share our later abortion story and ask for support against viability bans, there was one single Senate office that had an actual reproductive rights lawyer on staff. And that Senator was Kamala Harris.”
Indeed, Harris has a long history of supporting abortion rights: From taking on crisis pregnancy centers while California Attorney General to grilling now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whom she asked: “Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?”
So it’s no surprise that abortion rights group Reproductive Freedom for All endorsed Harris today, tweeting, “There is nobody who has fought as hard for abortion rights, and she is the candidate who can defeat Trump.” And in a video also endorsing Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren called her “a ferocious warrior on the issue of abortion.”
All of which is to say: People who care about abortion rights largely trust the vice president on the issue.
We know what happens next. Trump will go on the attack, calling Harris an extremist on abortion rights. Right-wing media will do the same—but will simultaneously claim that talking about abortion at all is a distraction.
Remember when Fox News called it a “last ditch effort” and “an embarrassment?” That’s deliberate: Conservative pundits and lawmakers know that abortion wins elections, and they really don’t want anyone talking about it. Especially not anyone who talks about it with knowledge and passion.
That’s what makes a Harris candidacy so dangerous to Trump. As Nia-Malika Henderson wrote at Bloomberg in January, Harris talking about abortion rights is Trump’s “worst nightmare.”
“She can talk personally about what it means to be a woman in post-Roe America. She can talk about the crimes against women and children she encountered as a prosecutor and how those victims will fare in Dobbs America. She can echo and amplify the everyday concerns and fears millions of women now live with. Most importantly, Harris can channel the anger.”
That outrage is what has stuck out to me the most as I’ve watched Harris give speech after speech on abortion this past year. She obviously shares the same fury that so many Americans feel. The ability to reflect that back to voters will be powerful. Powerful enough to overcome the inevitable racism and misogyny? I sure hope so.
Honestly, I'm mourning Biden today because despite his tepid response to abortion issues, he was willing to change throughout his career. His progressive bona fides (despite Gaza) have been impressive for someone who came in as a moderate. He listened and became more progressive than I would expect from someone half his age. So, today I mourn his sorrow.
No matter what, I'll work my ass off for Kamala and whomever she chooses as VP. At this crucial point in our lives we have to defeat fascism, and in doing that, bring back full personhood to ALL of us.
A competition is definitely not better. Time is short and we need to unite around Harris. Democrats need to grow a spine and not worry about what the media or the Republicans will say and stop overthinking everything. If there is a contested convention it will set us back.