Women’s rights, soon at the heart of the Democratic campaign. ‘We won’t be intimidated’: Vice President Kamala Harris made a fervent plea for abortion on Tuesday, putting this burning issue at the center of the 2024 US presidential race. The Democrat was warmly welcomed on a Washington University campus to chants of “four more years!” just hours after Joe Biden declared his candidacy.
Saying she is “proud” to represent herself alongside the octogenarian leader, Kamala Harris dwelt at length on the restrictions on abortion put in place by “extremist” elected officials across the country. “We live in a time when so many of our hard-won freedoms are under attack,” she criticized, accusing the Republican opposition of wanting to ban abortion nationwide. Florida has already severely restricted access to abortion. And North Dakota went a step further by signing a law on Monday that bans almost all abortions in its territory.
Biden poses as a defender of the right to abortion
The Biden administration is betting that abortion could once again mobilize its base in the 2024 presidential election – as it did in the midterm elections last November. After the Supreme Court ruling that shattered constitutional abortion protections, Democrats, especially younger Democrats, went to the polls in droves.
Several states with conservative majorities had also voted in favor of this right. According to the polls, the majority of Americans want to protect access to voluntary termination of pregnancy. A sign that the Democrats want to try to transform the test in the next election. Crossed-out “abortion is on the ballot” T-shirts were handed out at the entrance to the amphitheater where Kamala Harris spoke.
Although a fervent Catholic, Joe Biden has also become a convinced defender of the right to abortion in the face of attacks from the American religious right. For his first trip since his declaration of candidacy, the Democratic president had however chosen to surround himself with American workers. The offensive against the middle class is another priority of the “Biden-Harris” tandem for 2024.