Throughout his presidency, Joe Biden has relied on former prosecutor and Senator Kamala Harris, whom he tapped as vice president, to be the White House voice of unwavering support for reproductive health rights.
Now, with Democrats rebuilding their presidential ticket just months before Election Day, Harris was widely expected to take an aggressive stance on supporting abortion access if she becomes the party’s up-to-date presumptive nominee — a dig at former President Donald Trump on an issue that could undermine his chances of winning. Biden endorsed Harris on Sunday when he announced his decision to drop out of the race.
While Biden has sought to keep abortion in the spotlight as part of his re-election bid, abortion advocates have questioned whether the president — a practicing Catholic who has said he is “not a big supporter of abortion” — could be an effective candidate when Republicans are pushing back on access to abortion and other forms of health care for women across the country.
Harris, in turn, became the first vice president to visit a clinic run by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She undertook a nationwide speaking tour focused on reproductive rights. And when Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance was named Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Harris used her next campaign appearance to criticize him for blocking in vitro fertilization protections.
“Most importantly, Harris would be the face of the fight to protect abortion rights,” Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy at KFF, a nonprofit health information organization that owns KFF Health News, said in an interview before Biden left office. “Abortion access would likely be at the forefront of her campaign.”
A forceful stance on abortion isn’t the only stark contrast to the GOP that Harris offers: She’s well-versed in health policy. As a child, Harris often accompanied her mother to work on weekends, visiting a lab where she researched breast cancer.
During the 2019 presidential campaign, she supported “Medicare for All,” a single-payer insurance proposal that established her as a more progressive voice in health policy. And as California’s attorney general, she fought consolidation in the health care industry over concerns it would raise prices.
In April, she lobbied the Biden administration to introduce regulations setting minimum staffing levels for federally funded nursing homes.
“She deserves credit for that, she talked about it on the campaign trail. I don’t see any change in Democratic priorities on health care if she’s nominated,” said Debbie Curtis, vice president of McDermott + Consulting.
A sharper focus on women’s health and abortion could lend a hand mobilize Democratic voters in the final sprint before the election. Since three Supreme Court justices appointed by Trump helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, public opinion has swung away from Republicans on abortion, even contributing to an unexpectedly feeble showing in the 2022 midterm elections.
A Gallup poll conducted in May found that 32% of voters said they would only vote for a candidate for major office who shared their views on abortion, a record high since Gallup first asked the question in 1992. Nearly twice as many pro-abortion voters as anti-abortion voters share that view.
Sixty-three percent of adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to an April poll by the Pew Research Center. Thirty-six percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Republicans, meanwhile, have sought to distance themselves from their own victory on the issue. Trump has angered some in his base by saying he would leave abortion decisions up to the states.
Regardless, advocates warn that the up-to-date moderation by the GOP’s omission masks their real, more extreme position. Vance has made clear in the past his support for a national abortion ban. And while the GOP platform adopted at last week’s convention may not explicitly call for a nationwide abortion ban, party leaders’ recognition of “fetal personhood,” the idea that once an egg is fertilized, it becomes a person with full rights, would automatically establish such a ban if the Supreme Court were to rule it constitutional.
Those views are at odds with those of many Republicans, especially women. About half of Republican-voting women believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a recent national KFF poll. And a majority of Republican-voting women believe abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest or emergency pregnancy.
If Harris becomes committee chair, she can be expected to emphasize these issues strongly in the coming months.
“This is one of the main, if not the main, issues she’s been emphasizing over the last year or two,” said Matthew Baum, the Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communication at Harvard University. “It’s clear that Republicans are trying to make this issue irrelevant. It’s been a disaster for them.”
It’s likely, however, that Republicans would portray Harris’ views on abortion as extremist. During a presidential debate with Biden, Trump falsely claimed that Democrats support late-term abortion, “even after birth.”
Shortly after news broke that Biden had endorsed Harris, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America issued a statement criticizing Harris’ record and offering evidence of what’s to come. “While Joe Biden struggles to say the word abortion, Kamala Harris screams it,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president.
Some pollsters say Harris will need to do more than just campaign against Republican efforts to restrict abortion access to truly motivate voters, as a range of issues, including inflation, the economy and immigration, compete for attention.
“She needs to say she’s running for federal legislation that will restore Roe v. Wade,” said Robert Blendon, a retired professor of public health at Harvard University. “She needs something very specific and clear.”
Harris’ rise to the top of the ballot comes at a key moment in the fight for reproductive rights.
The Supreme Court heard two abortion cases during the term that ended this month. But the justices did not address the merits of either case, ruling instead on technical issues. Both are expected to return to the high court as early as next year.
In one case, challenging the FDA’s 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, judges ruled that a group of anti-abortion doctors challenging the drug had no legal standing to sue because they failed to prove that the drug’s availability caused them harm.
But the Supreme Court returned the case to a Texas district court, where it was filed, and the GOP attorneys general of three states — Idaho, Kansas and Missouri — joined the case as plaintiffs. The question remains whether the courts will accept the states as viable challengers, but if they do, the justices could soon be asked to decide the fate of the abortion pill again.
The second abortion case pitted a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care against Idaho’s strict ban, which allows abortions when a pregnant patient’s life is in danger — but not when it is necessary to protect her health, including her future fertility.
In this case, the justices apparently failed to reach a majority agreement, declaring instead that they had acted prematurely by accepting the case and sending it back to a lower court for further consideration. That case, too, could return relatively soon.
Harris would also have significant leeway to talk about what are seen as the Biden administration’s major health policy accomplishments. They include expanded Affordable Care Act tax credits aimed at helping consumers afford health insurance, which were extended under the Inflation Reduction Act through 2025, a $35-a-month cap on co-pays some patients pay for insulin, and Medicare drug price negotiations.
“I think she’s well-positioned. She’s the backbone of the administration and she’ll be able to take credit for these things,” said Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase.
Still, it may be complex for any candidate to focus voters’ attention on some of these accomplishments, especially efforts to lower drug prices.
Even though the administration has taken some vital steps, “new, expensive drugs are still coming out,” Mendelson said. “So if you look at consumer perceptions, they don’t believe drug costs are going down.”
Joseph Antos of the American Enterprise Institute said Harris would likely say a Biden-Harris administration is “already saving people money” on insulin. But it will need to go beyond that record and double down on drug pricing and other cost issues — and not just talk about reproductive rights.
“If he wants to win, he needs to focus on issues that have broad implications,” Antos said. “Cost is one thing, and access to treatment is another big issue.”
Samantha Young of KFF Health News contributed to this report.
