By far, Harris’s best-known policy position is that people should have access to abortion care.
It’s one of the most important issues for Democrats, but Biden, an 81-year-old Catholic, has been somewhat clumsy on it. Harris, by contrast, has shone brightly, from the Democratic base’s perspective, by forcefully and unapologetically defending abortion rights as a reproductive right — and by portraying Republican attempts to limit abortion as an attack on Americans’ freedoms.
“This is a fight for freedom — the basic freedom to make decisions about your own body without your government telling you what you’re supposed to do,” she said at an event in Florida this spring.
Democrats have yet to win a presidential election defending abortion rights. But abortion rights supporters have won several major battles at the ballot box since the Supreme Court gutted national abortion protections by striking down Roe v. Wade two years ago.
Democrats believe this is where Harris has the opportunity to draw the sharpest contrast with Donald Trump.
“In a post-Dobbs “Around the world,” said Democratic strategist Rebecca Kirszner Katz, “it might be remarkable to have a national candidate who unequivocally understands reproductive justice.” She referred to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
