Biden's representative on abortion rights, Harris, is probably going to turn up the volume.
.jpg)
Throughout his administration, Joe Biden relied on Kamala Harris, an outspoken former prosecutor and senator, to be the White House's unwavering voice in favor of reproductive health rights.
Now, with only a few months until Election Day, Democrats are rebuilding their presidential ticket, and if Harris is chosen as the party's next presumptive nominee, it is widely anticipated that she will take a strong stand in favor of abortion access, undermining former President Donald Trump's chances of winning. When Harris declared his intention to withdraw from the contest on Sunday, Biden gave his support.
Abortion advocates had doubts that the president, a practicing Catholic who has stated he is not "big on abortion," could be an effective standard-bearer as Republican efforts erode access to abortion and other women's health care across the nation, even though Biden sought to keep abortion front and center in his reelection campaign.
Harris, however, made history by being the first vice president to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic. She embarked on a reproductive rights-focused national tour. Additionally, Harris used her subsequent campaign appearance to attack Trump for opposing protections for in vitro fertilization when Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was announced as his running mate.
Before Biden resigned, Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonprofit organization that provides health information and hosts KFF Health News, stated in an interview that Harris "would be the face of the drive to protect abortion rights." "She would probably put access to abortion front and center in her campaign."
Not only does Harris take a hard stand against the GOP on abortion, but she also has extensive knowledge of health policy. When Harris was younger, she would frequently go to the lab where her mother, a biomedical scientist, studied breast cancer, on the weekends.
She established her credentials as a more progressive voice on health policy when she supported "Medicare for All," a single-payer insurance concept, while she was a presidential candidate in 2019. She also opposed health industry mergers as California's attorney general, fearing it would result in higher costs.
In April, she advocated for the Biden administration's rule that established minimum staffing levels for nursing homes that receive federal funding.
"She should be commended because during the campaign trail, she discussed them. If Hillary is nominated, I don't see any shift in the Democrats' goals when it comes to health care, stated Debbie Curtis, vice president of McDermott + Consulting.
Increasing the emphasis on abortion and women's health may inspire Democratic voters in the last stretch leading up to the election. Republicans' performance in the 2022 midterm elections was surprisingly weak, partly due to the shift in public sentiment against abortion that has occurred since the three Supreme Court justices appointed by Trump played a key role in the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
According to a May Gallup Poll, 32% of people stated they would only support a candidate for a major position who held similar views on abortion. Since Gallup originally posed the question in 1992, that represents a record high. Voters who are in favor of abortion make up about twice as many as those who are against it.
According to a Pew Research Center survey from April, sixty-three percent of Americans said that abortion should be permitted in all or most circumstances. Thirty-six percent said that in all or most circumstances, it ought to be prohibited.
On the other hand, Republicans have been keen to disassociate themselves from their own success on the matter. When Trump declared that he would leave abortion decisions up to the states, certain members of his base became enraged.
Advocates, however, issue a warning that the GOP's seeming moderation on the matter is actually a front for their true, more severe position. Vance made it plain that he supported a federal ban on abortion while he was a Senate candidate, but he now claims to agree with Trump's stance that the states should make the final decision. The GOP platform, which was approved by the party last week, did acknowledge "fetal personhood," the theory that an egg becomes a person with full legal rights as soon as it is fertilized, even though it does not specifically call for a nationwide ban on abortion. It's a legal theory that has the potential to outlaw abortion and IVF.
These opinions differ from many Republicans', particularly those of women. According to a recent nationwide survey by KFF, approximately half of Republican women voters believe that abortion should be permitted in all or most situations. Furthermore, the majority of Republican-voting women think that abortion ought to be permitted in situations involving rape, incest, or an urgent pregnancy.
Harris would be expected to focus on those concerns in the upcoming months if she were to lead the ticket.
"In the past year or two, it has been one of her main, if not the main, issues," according to Harvard University's Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications Matthew Baum. It is evident that Republicans are attempting to defame the problem. For them, it's been disastrous.
Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to portray Harris' abortion-related beliefs as extreme. Trump made up the assertion that Democrats favor abortions "even after birth" during the presidential debate versus Biden.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America released a statement shortly after it was announced that Biden had endorsed Harris, criticizing Harris' track record and providing indications of what is to come. The president of the organization, Marjorie Dannenfelser, stated, "Kamala Harris shouts the word abortion, while Joe Biden has trouble saying it."
According to some pollsters, Harris won't be able to energize voters with only his campaign against Republican attempts to restrict access to abortion since there are so many other concerns competing for voters' attention, such immigration, the economy, and inflation.
"She needs to declare that she is running for a federal law that will overturn Roe v. Wade," said Harvard University emeritus professor of public health Robert Blendon. "She requires something very clear and specific."
Again, Harris's ascent to the top of the ticket would coincide with a turning point in the struggle for reproductive rights in Supreme Court decisions. During the term that concluded this month, the Supreme Court heard two issues involving abortion. However, the justices ruled on technicalities rather than discussing the merits of the arguments in either case. It's anticipated that both will appear before the supreme court as early as next year.
In one case, the court concluded that a group of anti-abortion medical professionals who challenged the drug had standing to sue because they were unable to demonstrate that their availability had directly hurt them. The issue involved the FDA's 2000 approval of the abortion pill mifepristone.
However, the case was sent back to the Texas district court by the Supreme Court, and three Republican attorneys general, from Idaho, Kansas, and Missouri, have joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. It remains to be unclear if the courts will see the states as serious opponents, but if they do, the judges may soon be called upon once more to decide what will happen to the abortion pill.
In the other abortion-related case, Idaho's tight ban—which permits abortions only in situations where a pregnant patient's life is in danger and not when it is required to protect her health, including future fertility—was placed against a federal provision mandating hospitals to provide emergency care.
The justices in that instance did not appear to be able to come to a majority decision; instead, they declared that it was premature to take the case and returned it to the lower court for more review. That instance may also resurface really quickly.
Additionally, Harris would have a great deal of freedom to discuss the main achievements of the Biden administration's health policy initiatives. These include the $35 monthly cap on some patients' insulin copays, Medicare prescription price negotiations, and expanded tax credits under the Affordable Care Act intended to assist customers in obtaining health insurance coverage. These credits were extended under the Inflation Reduction Act until 2025.
She seems to be in a good position. Dan Mendelson, CEO of Morgan Health, a division of J.P. Morgan Chase, stated, "She is essential to the administration and will be able to take credit for those things."
Nevertheless, any candidate may find it challenging to draw attention from voters to some of those achievements, particularly the initiatives to lower medicine prices.
.jpg)
American Enterprise Institute analyst Joseph Antos predicted that Harris will claim the Biden-Harris administration "is already saving people money" on insulin. She must, however, build on these achievements and focus on other cost-related issues, such as medicine pricing, rather than just discussing reproductive rights.
Antos stated, "She needs to focus on issues that have a broad appeal if she wants to win." "Access to treatments is a major issue, and cost is just one."
Comments
Post a Comment