The Biden Administration has announced Vice President Kamala Harris will travel around the country promoting pro-abortion issues throughout 2024.
Harris’s first stop on the “Reproductive Freedom” tour is an event in Wisconsin on Jan. 22. The date is both the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade as well as the day before the New Hampshire presidential primary.
“Extremists across our country continue to wage a full-on attack against hard-won, hard-fought freedoms as they push their radical policies – from banning abortion in all 50 states and criminalizing doctors, to forcing women to travel out of state in order to get the care they need,” said Harris in a statement on Dec. 19. “I will continue to fight for our fundamental freedoms while bringing together those throughout America who agree that every woman should have the right to make decisions about her own body – not the government.”
During each tour stop – the dates and location of which have not been announced – the Biden administration says Harris will “host events that highlight the harm caused by these abortion bans while sharing stories of those who have been impacted.”
The White House’s statement referred to people who propose a national ban on abortions as “extremists” and alluded to abortion as a “fundamental” freedom.
Democrats and left-leaning organizations regard abortion access as a key issue ahead of the 2024 election. The United States Supreme Court formally reversed its decision in 1973’s Roe v. Wade in late June of 2022, approximately one month after a draft of the court’s dedication in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization was leaked.
Progressive political strategists have argued the abortion access debate will be particularly motivating to voters in states that have since enacted more restrictions on the procedure.
“If you’re looking for canaries in a coal mine, we don’t have to squint to see this in the same way that we undervalued, perhaps, the role that the Dobbs decision was going to play in the 2022 midterms,” Joe Zepecki, Wisconsin-based Democratic strategist, told The Hill in March. “I think it is extremely unwise for people to undervalue the issue of abortion as a force in American politics going forward.”
Still, despite these predictions, other concerns appeared to outweigh abortion access in the minds of Americans during the second half of 2023.
A poll from Newsweek and Redfield & Wilton Strategies published in July found that 60% of respondents said the economy is the biggest issue facing the country right now. At least 33% believe the next most important issue was healthcare, while immigration was ranked the third most serious concern with 28%.
The number of voters who expressed concern about crime and policing (24%) surpassed the number of voters who were concerned about abortion (21%), which was tied with concern about the environment (21%).
According to research from health policy organization KFF published on Dec. 1:While few voters overall (4%) say abortion is the “most important” issue for 2024 presidential candidates to talk about as they campaign, the Democratic Party holds a strong advantage over the Republican Party on voters’ trust to handle abortion (58% vs. 41%). The Democratic Party hold the advantage on trust on this issue across key voting blocs including women voters overall (61%), women voters ages 18 to 49 (66%), independent women voters (66%), and almost all Democratic women voters (94%).
