Kamala Harris Isn’t Letting Trump Dodge on Abortion

Kamala Harris speaks on reproductive freedom at El Rio Neighborhood Center in Tucson, Arizona, on April 12.Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Days after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a near-total ban on abortion could be enforced in the state, Kamala Harris went after Trump for his position on abortion in a campaign speech Friday in Tucson. Harris said that the ruling, which granted abortion exceptions only when it was “necessary to save” a woman’s life, “demonstrated once and for all that overturning Roe was just the opening act of a larger strategy.”
“And we all must understand who all is to blame,” Harris, who has become the Biden administration’s most vocal official on abortion, said. “Former President Donald Trump did this.” She said that a second Trump term would produce even more abortion bans and adversely affect reproductive care for women. 
Harris calling out Trump comes as the former president appears to be carving out distance between himself and anti-abortion policies. Over the past week, he has repeatedly said that there is no longer a need for a federal abortion ban, because “we broke Roe v. Wade.” On Wednesday, he said he would decline to sign such a ban, and on Monday, he claimed that abortion policy should be left to the states. He also released a statement opposing the Arizona ban. 
Democrats, including President Biden, have accused Trump of lying as he attempts to avoid the political fallout of being associated with strict anti-abortion policies, which consistently poll as extremely unpopular among voters. 
Trump has moved back and forth on abortion as it has been politically expedient—prior to running for office, he both claimed to be “very pro-choice” and then “pro-life.” In 2016, he said he would attempt to defund Planned Parenthood and then try to provide “some form of punishment” to women seeking abortions. In 2017, he supported the 20-week abortion ban that the House passed, saying that he would sign it, though the bill never made it through the Senate. 
Trump then blamed the GOP failing to meet its expectations in the 2023 midterm due to the “abortion issue” and started slightly softening his position from his previous statements, reportedly discussing a 15- or 16-week abortion ban, shortened from the 20 weeks he had previously advocated for. Political observers have widely seen the Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe v. Wade, enabled by Trump’s nominees to the court, as perhaps the key factor in hurting Republicans in the midterm elections.