Democrats have made reproductive rights a centerpiece of their campaign message, but the effort has been drowned out these past two weeks amid mounting concerns about President Biden’s ability to run for reelection and calls for him to step aside.
Advocates argue the more time and energy that goes into deciding whether Biden should stay in the race or step aside is less time that could be used to show voters the threat from former President Trump and a Republican-controlled government.
“I do think that this conversation has sucked the air out of what we are for, what we are fighting for,” said Nourbese Flint, president of All* Above All and its affiliated political fund, which focuses on abortion justice.
Flint and other progressives have been pressing the Biden campaign to be stronger on its reproductive rights messaging, but right now she and other progressives said the campaign feels stuck.
“The base is split. I think that folks are really confused,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women's March. “And I think that there is a really big need for the party to demonstrate leadership and to make a clear move to run a strong campaign and to refocus attention back on to the issues and to what's at stake.”
Flint said Democrats need to send out their “best gladiator” because the election is so consequential. But she admitted she doesn’t know who that person is.
Abortion was a winning issue in 2022, and Democrats had high hopes it would also carry them in 2024.
Every time a state passed an abortion ban, or a court ruled to uphold one, Democrats condemned it, and the Biden campaign was quick to blame Trump, who has repeatedly boasted about appointing justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
Democratic candidates and abortion advocacy groups have been sounding the alarm about what a Trump administration would potentially mean for reproductive rights, and polls showed the message was hitting home.
A record percentage of Americans are now declaring themselves single-issue voters on abortion rights, according to a June Gallup poll. The numbers were strongest among Black voters, Democrats, women and those ages 18 to 29.
But then the presidential debate happened, where Biden stumbled over his words, appeared to lose his train of thought and gave a rambling and at times incoherent answer when asked about abortion — a topic that most thought would be a layup given its outsized importance for the campaign.
The showing prompted calls within the party for Biden to step aside, which have only grown since.
Strategists and abortion-rights activists are frustrated that a winning policy issue is being overshadowed amid the drama.
“There is a simple test for every campaign. Are you talking about the issues you want to talk about or the ones your opponent wants you to talk about? If the topic of conversation is reproductive rights, that is a winning day for Democrats. If the predominant conversation is the president’s age, that is a winning day for Republicans,” said Jim Kessler, co-founder of the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way.
At the national level, lawmakers are trying to keep abortion at the forefront of voters’ minds.
In the Senate, Democrats brought up four bills this past week focused on access to reproductive health care, including expressing support for reinstituting Roe v. Wade’s abortion protections.
It was part of a strategy that began before the July Fourth holiday recess with votes on access to contraception and in vitro fertilization. Democrats forced Republicans to go on the record, trying to put them in a bind between the wishes of their conservative base and the majority of the U.S.
Republicans blocked all the bills.
“Supporting a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions should have been one of the easiest ‘yes’ votes we have taken all year. By voting no, Republicans told every woman in America ‘your body, our choice,’” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor after Republicans blocked consideration of the bill to support Roe.
But in the 24 hours following the vote, about a dozen Democratic lawmakers called on Biden to drop out of the 2024 race. More have since joined in, though others have circled the wagons around Biden.
Biden himself has never been the most forceful messenger on abortion rights, and his personal views on the issue are famously complicated.
Vice President Harris has been a strong surrogate, so when Biden botched the abortion question during the debate, it fueled further questions about whether he should step aside for a more effective messenger like Harris.
“It's the easiest issue to message on. It's their top strength. It's Trump's top weakness. It's just a simple message. And there was an incoherent response. So I see why abortion rights activists are concerned,” said Tresa Undem, a Democratic pollster who specializes in abortion topics.
Amy Hagstrom Miller, co-founder of Whole Woman’s Health, a network of abortion clinics, said she finds Harris to be “authentic” and a good listener.
“That credibility and that ability to listen and be attentive to real heartbreaking stories without sort of politicizing them. I think she's doing really well with it, has been really effective at talking about abortion,” Hagstrom Miller said.
But she pushed back strongly at the idea that Harris would be a more effective candidate and said those conversations are a distraction.
“I'm worried about Trump,” Hagstrom Miller said. “I don't see [Harris’s] strength as meaning [Biden] has a weakness ... the Biden-Harris administration is on the ticket. There's stability there, there is very much leadership in the reproductive rights, health and justice lane from the Biden-Harris administration.”
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