There are a lot of issues at stake in the 2024 presidential election, but to simplify it, let’s focus on abortion.
Abortion is a very personal issue and most voters have strong opinions on the matter, which is precisely why the decision whether to have an abortion must also be a personal one. Reproductive rights should not be political and the government should have no place in the decision to have an abortion or seek other care.
Abortion access is about the fundamental right to bodily autonomy, and in the 2024 election, this right is on the ballot.
Following the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the fate of abortion access to the states, women have died or suffered preventable pregnancy complications. Doctors fear they will be arrested for simply doing their jobs and the chaos and uncertainty have left many feeling scared and alone.
This presidential election offers the choice between Vice President Kamala Harris, a woman who vows to restore and protect reproductive rights, and former President Donald Trump who appointed the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
Abortion was ranked the No. 1 issue in the presidential election for women younger than 30 in a recent KFF survey, surpassing inflation since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. Abortion ranked No. 3 overall for women who participated in the survey.
Paul Goren, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said abortion is a very important issue for the majority of voters in the U.S. and people tend to have very strong opinions about it. Goren said these voters could be completely for or against abortion access, or somewhere in the middle.
“It’s not as if the nation is split into two unbridgeable pro-life, pro-choice camps,” Goren said. “A solid chunk of the public is ambivalent about abortion or favors it under some conditions, but not others.”
Goren said he would put abortion among immigration and the economy as the three big issues that are important for the small number of voters who are still undecided.
According to Goren, abortion could be the deciding factor for people who care most about it and are just looking to choose the candidate they see as the lesser of two evils, which would likely favor Harris. Goren added that immigration and the economy are less likely to help the Harris-Walz campaign win over undecided voters.
Dr. Christy Boraas, director of the Division of Complex Family Planning at the University, said all elections are crucial to protecting abortion care, especially presidential elections.
Boraas said electing senators who will protect people’s right to make decisions about their bodies is also important because those representatives control Supreme Court appointments.
“The people who want abortion to go away forever have been playing the long game,” Boraas said. “That not only is electing people to office, but those people then being able to appoint judges.”
Boraas is also an associate medical director at Planned Parenthood North Central States, which includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska. Boraas said her work in the Twin Cities didn’t change following the Dobbs decision, but there was a significant increase in patients traveling for care because they could no longer receive treatment in their home states.
Boraas said she does not believe Trump’s recent attempts to soften his rhetoric on abortion.
The Trump-Vance campaign’s stances on reproductive and childcare issues are painfully hypocritical.
At numerous campaign events, Trump said he supports in vitro fertilization, going so far as to call himself the “father of IVF” during a Fox News town hall in Georgia. Meanwhile, the Dobbs decision he helped facilitate by appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court has been widely unpopular among the public and has put IVF on shaky ground.
According to Goren, abortion is a challenging issue for Trump because the majority of U.S. voters are pro-choice, but Trump still needs to appeal to his pro-life conservative base. Trump either dodges the issue of abortion by saying it is up to the states or talks about something else altogether to avoid taking a clear stance on reproductive rights.
Regardless of his attempts to backtrack, a second Trump presidency would further endanger the future of reproductive care and the ability for people to make decisions about their own bodies.
In the vice presidential debate between Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, when discussing a national paid leave program Vance said women should be able to choose how to navigate returning to work, whether returning promptly or taking more time at home.
“We should have a family care model that makes choice possible,” Vance said.
This concept of women having choices does not, however, extend to Vance or Trump’s viewpoints of actually having a child and being able to access abortion. Trump and Vance do not care about protecting or improving women’s healthcare and reproductive rights if it does not serve their own interests.
Conservatives have been playing the long game to overturn Roe v. Wade and it would be irresponsible not to put a stop to their backtracking with this election and every one after.
“People who want abortion to go away will not stop until we have a federal personhood ‘egg plus sperm equals a person’ law,” Boraas said. “And what that means for reproductive care generally is pretty tragic.”
Boraas said the consequences of abortion bans aren’t new to medical professionals, but the nation is getting to see how abortion bans affect people’s lives. These bans are causing increased infant mortality in addition to worse pregnancy complications, according to Boraas.
Allie Meyer, a first-year student, said this election is important because she feels her rights as a woman are on the ballot. Meyer said she would not trust or feel safe with Trump making federal decisions and is concerned about who would be able to appoint future Supreme Court justices.
To Meyer, abortion is an important issue for people to vote on, even if they aren’t extremely engaged in politics or decided in their policy opinions.
“If you’re on the fence, not voting is the same as voting against it,” Meyer said.
When abortion rights initiatives have been put on the ballot in red, blue and purple states, citizens have voted to protect or expand abortion rights, according to Goren.
This is an issue most of us can agree on, but I want to make it clear that whether you would personally choose to have an abortion or not, what is important is that the choice is a personal one. It is not the government’s place to make decisions for people about their own bodies.
“I’ve yet to meet anyone who was like, ‘You know, I really just wish the government would make this decision for me,’” Boraas said.
During Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation hearings, then Sen. Harris famously highlighted the discrepancy between how the law treats female and male bodies.
“Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?” Harris asked.
Kavanaugh confirmed he could not.
This election is essential for abortion rights, but it is bigger than that. The choice between Harris and Trump is the choice between women having their rights protected or taken away whenever possible.