Abortion is one of the most influential points of debate between Trump and Harris in the 2024 presidential election, and their stances on the topic couldn’t be more different.
Many voters have already cast their votes either via post or early voting, but a large majority of American citizens will have their say at the polls on Tuesday 5th November.
A controversial topic in the 2024 US election has been abortion, with Republicans and Democrats taking opposing sides to the infamous abortion bans that have swept the states.
Following the overturning of Roe v Wade in June of 2022, 22 US states have subsequently banned or restricted abortion access – the Democrats claim the former President to be the catalyst.
Throughout Harris’ presidential campaign, she has remained steadfast against the abortion bans brought in during Trump’s presidency, and has made it clear that she is pro-choice.
She has also made her opinion on Trump’s role in the overturning of Roe v Wade extremely clear, and in a September presidential debate on ABC News she said that Trump had “hand selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v Wade, and they did exactly as he intended.”
In a bid to win support over the former President, advocating for abortion rights has become a focal point for Harris and the Democrat’s campaign.
Taking an opposing stance to Trump, the current Vice President backs the reintroduction of the protections afforded by Roe v Wade and has pledged to “proudly sign it into law” if she were to win.
It comes as no surprise then that Trump wants to protect abortion bans and in 2023, on his social media platform, Truth, Trump even said: “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.”
Despite this quite obvious stance from Trump, he has demonstrated slightly ambiguous and shifting opinions on abortion during his re-election campaign.
Only recently he called his home state of Florida’s six week abortion ban “too short” and that he would vote to overturn it.
Just one day later, after facing conservative criticism, he backtracked and admitted he would instead vote against it.
Florida will be one of the 10 US states that will include abortion rights on their ballot papers, and voters will be able to vote on abortion protections, as will Trump.
The former US President believes that he has given the states what they wanted – the right to make decisions on the topic of abortion.
There has been some uncertainty as to whether Trump would veto a federal abortion ban which would impact the entirety of the United States if he were to win – he previously evaded these questions.
But earlier this month he took to X during a vice presidential debate to clarify that he would in fact veto a ban.
EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT, BECAUSE IT IS UP TO THE STATES TO DECIDE BASED ON THE WILL OF THEIR VOTERS (THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE!). LIKE RONALD REAGAN BEFORE ME, I FULLY SUPPORT THE THREE…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2024
Harris, however, has reiterated on multiple occasions that she believes this to be a lie, and in the same debate said: “If Donald Trump were to be re-elected, he will sign a national abortion ban.”
The US Vice President, unlike Trump’s confusing statements surrounding abortion, has made her stance clear – that a woman should have access to an abortion no matter the circumstances.
However, in a September presidential debate on ABC, the former US President explained that he does in fact also believe in exceptions to abortion bans – in the case of rape, incest and possible endangerment to the life of the Mother.
He claimed that “85% of republicans” also believe this.
But the US states with strict abortion bans are yet to see any leniency on the exceptions that the former President seems to support.
Harris’ passionate speeches about the danger no-exception abortion bans have on pregnant people has highlighted just how scary the current maternal mortality rate is in the US.
The emerging gender divide in the polls sees Harris with a larger female backing than Trump, almost certainly due to her pro-choice stance.
Even famous female celebrities are coming out to support the Vice President, in the hopes of swaying voters come polling day.
Beyoncé and Kelly Rolland recently appeared at a Texas rally with Harris advocating for the protection of female bodily autonomy.
Likewise, Michelle Obama also came out in support of Harris at a Michigan rally where she highly criticised Trump’s stance.
In response to the growing gender divide, at a Pennsylvania rally Trump said: “Someone said ‘women don’t like Donald Trump’, I think that’s wrong. I think they love me.”
Trump and Harris’ abortion stances may be drastically different, but we will have to wait for the results to see whether or not this has impacted the polls.
Photo by Jonathan Simcoe on Unsplash
