Where do Trump and Harris stand? • Nebraska Examiner
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of reports from U.S. newsrooms on key policy issues in the presidential campaign.
WASHINGTON — This year’s election marks the first time voters cast their ballots for a president since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion and made reproductive rights a key issue for many voters.
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump have spoken repeatedly about reproductive rights and abortion access over the past few months.
Trump’s stance changed during his campaign for the White House. He now claims he will not sign legislation imposing nationwide abortion restrictions and wants to leave regulation to the states.
Harris has long said national laws guaranteeing access would ensure the choice is left to women, not politicians.
“I promise you that when Congress passes a bill that restores Roe v. Wade protections, as president of the United States, I will be proud to sign it into law,” Harris said at the hearing. September presidential debate.
Trump gloated during the same debate that he had nominated three justices to the Supreme Court who later joined their conservative colleagues in ruling that the Constitution did not provide a right to privacy, two previous high court rulings said. These rights insulate women from their choice of abortion.
“I did something that no one thought was possible,” Trump said of nominating three justices. “The states are voting now. What she’s saying is an absolute lie. As for abortion bans, no, I’m not in favor of abortion bans. But it doesn’t matter because the issue has now been taken over by the states.
Harris just said that Trump will sign a nationwide abortion ban if elected, and cited the “2025 Plan”, the blueprint for Trump’s second administration released by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Trump and his campaign have repeatedly tried to distance themselves from the document and many of its proposals.
Many politicians have distorted the Supreme Court’s ruling from two years ago, saying it sent abortion regulations back to the states. Ending Roe v. Wade means “the power to regulate abortion returns to the people and their elected representatives,” the conservative justices wrote.
Of course, this includes Congress and the President.
Trump has different positions
Trump’s stance on abortion has not always been linear or consistent. He told Republicans earlier this year that in order to win elections they should avoid discussing the topic, while also courting groups that see him as one of the ways to end abortion altogether.
Trump got into trouble with several anti-abortion groups and conservative Republicans in April when he declare He doesn’t want Congress to act on a nationwide law.
Trump has previously said he would support a 16-week nationwide ban. He reiterated his support for exceptions to state abortion bans in cases of rape, incest and the life of the pregnant woman in an April statement.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony USA, issued a statement after Trump’s announcement in April, saying she was “deeply disappointed.” .
“To say this issue ‘returns to the states’ cedes the national debate to Democrats, who are working tirelessly to enact legislation to mandate abortion in the first nine months of pregnancy,” Dannenfelser wrote. “If successful, they will eliminate states’ rights.”
About a month later, in May, Trump, Dannenfelser, Family Research Council Chairman Tony Perkins and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham had a “wonderful meeting.” statement was later released.
Then, this summer, Trump further muddied his abortion stance when he Talk to an organization In June, it described abortion as “the greatest atrocity facing” the United States and should be “eradicated.”
“This is going to be your year, because you’re going to come back just like every other group,” Trump said at the Danbury Institute’s inaugural Life and Liberty Forum. “I know what happened. I know where you’re coming from and where you’re coming from. Wherever you want to go. And I will always be by your side.
And then, more recently, Trump Post on social mediaDuring the vice presidential debate in early October, he said he would veto any nationwide abortion restrictions.
Trump wrote in capital letters that he would “under no circumstances support a federal abortion ban and, in fact, would veto it because it is up to the states to make decisions based on the will of their voters – the will of the voters – the people.” !
Trump added that he does not support abortion in the seventh, eighth or ninth month of pregnancy, nor the killing of infants, since it is already illegal.
According to statistics, in 2021, about 93% of abortions occurred within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy data From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and analyzed by the Pew Research Center.
Another 6% of abortions occur between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, with the remaining 1% occurring after 21 weeks of pregnancy, the data shows.
“Almost half of people who have abortions after 20 weeks don’t suspect they are pregnant until later in pregnancy, and other barriers to care include a lack of information about where to have an abortion, transportation difficulties, lack of insurance and an inability to pay for the procedure,” according to analyze From KFF Health.
harris location
Harris has repeatedly criticized Trump for celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision ending Roe v. Wade and said during the presidential debate that state restrictions hurt women in multiple ways.
“Trump’s abortion ban makes no exceptions for rape and incest,” Harris said. “Understand what that means — survivors of crimes, whose bodies have been violated, do not have the right to decide what happens to their bodies next. This is unethical.
“People don’t have to give up their beliefs or deeply held beliefs to agree with the government, and Donald Trump certainly shouldn’t be telling a woman what to do with her body.”
Harris called on Democrats to eliminate the legislative filibuster in the Senate to facilitate passage of bills that would restore abortion protections nationwide.
The Senate rule requires at least 60 members to vote to advance legislation before it can pass with a simple majority. it is different from what is called Talk about obstruction,When a senator or a group of like-minded lawmakers talk for hours on the floor to delay a vote.
Democrats must maintain their majority in the Senate to pass a bill that would reinstate Roe v. Wade without exceptions to the legislative filibuster. Democrats also need to regain control of the House of Representatives.
A divided Congress, or opposition from a handful of Democrats to changes to Senate rules, would stymie Harris’ efforts to sign a national agreement to protect abortion.
Democratic Party trying to legislate The Senate was supposed to provide nationwide protections for abortion when they took unified control of the government in 2022, but that was stymied by the filibuster.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Kristen Sinema, R-Ariz. subsequently introduced a bipartisan billA similar result would have been produced, but a floor vote was not scheduled.
If Democrats sweep the November elections, the two-year-old legislation may once again be unable to move forward unless they carve out exceptions to the Senate filibuster.
swing state voters
Harris and Trump’s positions on abortion could play a role in determining which candidate wins the Electoral College in key swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin play a role in.
Democrats are optimistic Abortion opportunity ballot issue Ten states will boost Harris’ chances through increased voter turnout and increased spending by reproductive rights groups.
While many referendums are held in blue or red states, proposals in Arizona and Florida could affect turnout and motivation.
Louis Jacobson, senior columnist for Sabato Crystal Ball, University of Virginia Center for Politics, wrote Earlier this month, a key question on Election Day will be whether abortion rights advocates will continue their perfect seven-for-seven record since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Voters will also decide on a number of other ballot issues, including recreational or medical marijuana, minimum wage increases and ranked-choice voting.
In a previous post on the abortion ballot issue, Jacobson and Samantha Putman wrote “Any post-Roe legislation is already on the ballot in an election with relatively low turnout — either the November midterms, primaries, or the following year’s election.”
“Any measure on the ballot in 2024 would face voters in November of a presidential year, when turnout is much higher,” they wrote. “This risks hurting supporters of abortion rights as moderates and liberals Voters have been flexing their electoral muscle more recently with lower turnout.”
Pew Research Center polls conducted over the past three decades consistent displayIn most or all cases, support for legalizing abortion outweighs support for making the procedure illegal.
The 2024 survey showed that 63% of people want abortion to be legal in most or all cases, while 36% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
