Where do Kamala Harris and Tim Walz stand on abortion? DNC shines spotlight on policy

Democrats are making abortion a top issue in the 2024 election as they try to win over voters who believe the Supreme Court overstepped when it overturned Roe v Wade.

Former president Donald Trump has shared his concern that the issue could be a vote-loser for the Republicans even as he picked a staunch abortion opponent to be his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance.

President Joe Biden dropping out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket has completely changed the race, particularly when it comes to abortion.

Here’s where Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, stand on the issue of reproductive rights.

The vice president is backing legislation that would protect reproductive rights across the US as Roe v Wade did before the 1973 Supreme Court ruling was overturned in summer 2022.

After the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, she quickly became the Biden administration’s top spokesperson on the issue of abortion.

She visited an abortion clinic in March, believed to be the first such visit by a president or vice president, according to The New York Times.

As a senator, she co-sponsored legislation that, if passed, would have banned often-used restrictions on the state level.

In 2019, when she ran for president, she said that states that have imposed abortion restrictions in violation of Roe, which was the law of the land at the time, should have to pass what is called pre-clearance for new laws governing abortion, meaning they would have to be federally approved, a proposal which ceased to be a possibility with the overturning of Roe.

Harris supports restoring Roe, the law which protected abortion until fetal viability around 22 weeks.