Two years after the US Supreme Court struck down constitutional protections for abortion, the explosive issue will figure prominently in Thursday’s debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump — with the Republican under pressure not to alienate voters.
On June 24, 2022, the high court — with an ultra-conservative majority built during Trump’s presidency — overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which had protected abortion rights, putting the issue in the hands of the states.
That same day, some U.S. states banned abortions, forcing clinics to either close immediately or move to more convenient locations.
An already politically polarized nation is now divided into two factions – states that have banned or severely restricted access to the abortion procedure – and those that have adopted new protections for a woman’s right to obtain an abortion.
The Supreme Court’s decision caused a political uproar across the country, and had devastating consequences – conservatives have lost nearly every referendum or vote on the issue of access to abortion since the decision.
And some of these losses were in states that have recently moved strongly to the right, like Ohio, Alabama, and Kansas.
Kamala Harris takes charge
“Since Roe was repealed, the abortion rights movement has found that Americans are far more concerned about abortion rights than they are about abortion rights,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis Law School.
“And so they’re trying to leverage that into ballot initiative battles, which have mostly gone the way of the abortion rights movement,” he told AFP.
Democrats are taking full advantage of this opportunity and are expected to get significant support from women and young voters.
Biden, a Catholic who has long been troubled by the issue, has become a supporter of abortion rights and has made it a key part of his re-election campaign, winning the support of several family planning organizations.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to hold the post, spent months traveling across the country to rally her party’s supporters.
Harris, 59, became the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic in Minnesota in March.
On Monday she will hold an event in Arizona — a state considered a key battleground for November’s presidential election, and where the Supreme Court has ruled that a Civil War-era rule banning abortion remains valid.
Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs later signed the 1864 law into law.
Across the country, Democrats have also encouraged the holding of mini-referendums on abortion in key states, to coincide with presidential voting — and hopefully motivate even apathetic voters to turn out to vote.
Trump intentionally vague
If the series of opinion polls is correct, Democrats are right to be confident in their argument.
According to a Fox News poll published Wednesday, 47 percent of voters consider abortion “extremely important” in deciding between Biden and Trump.
The presumptive Republican nominee, who often mentions that he nominated three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the Roe v. Wade case, has recently been noticeably vague on the issue of abortion.
“You should follow your heart on this issue, but remember, you also have to win the election,” Trump said in a video message in early April.
He has not campaigned on any promise to make abortion illegal through federal legislation, as the religious right had pressured him to do.
“If your position is unpopular, it’s best not to explain your position,” says Ziegler.
Biden, whose approval ratings are not great, will almost certainly attack Trump on the issue when the two take the stage on Thursday for their first debate in 2024.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
