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6 Books to Help You Understand the Reproductive Rights Debate
Journalists and scholars explore the issue at every level, from the movement that took down Roe to the human stories of women who had abortions, and those who were denied.
Around this time two years ago, political pundits were predicting an electoral blood bath. The 2022 midterms were supposed to prove ruinous for Democrats. Instead, they won a historic set of races — flipping state legislatures, gaining a Senate seat and minimizing losses in the House.
The contests refuted the longstanding assumption that abortion is not an issue that wins elections for Democrats. The backlash to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, stripping American women of their constitutional right to the procedure — turned abortion access into a powerful political motivating force.
Now, with the presidential election approaching, the two leading candidates have staked out starkly different positions on the issue.
Kamala Harris, a longtime advocate of reproductive rights, has made abortion access a cornerstone of her campaign — promising, if elected, to sign federal legislation restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade (a pledge that would be hard to fulfill in a divided government) and speaking frequently on the campaign trail about the effects of abortion restrictions on women and families. Donald Trump, who calls himself “proudly the person responsible” for ending Roe, supports allowing states to enact abortion restrictions, although he has said he would not sign a federal ban.
Harris has put Trump on his heels on this issue. His running mate, JD Vance, acknowledged in a recent debate that the American people “just don’t trust” Republicans on abortion, which the polls bear out: Harris has a double-digit lead on the issue, and a growing share of voters have ranked it as crucial to their decision about how to vote.
