Abortion is one of the top issues for US voters in November’s elections. SBS looks at how and why this is so.

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TRANSCRIPT
“This issue is what’s on everyone’s mind. Donald Trump put this all into motion. He brags about how great it was that he put the judges in and overturned Roe versus Wade. 52 years of personal autonomy. And then he tells us we’ll send it to the states. It’s a beautiful thing.”
That’s Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic VP candidate, talking about how – in this year’s US election – abortion is shaping up to be a major issue.
And much of that is centred around the 50 states of America.
Abortion measures will be on the ballot in NINE of them this November, asking voters to decide whether or not to add the right to abortion to their state constitutions.*
Maryland is one of them.
The ballot measure is a large part of Democrat Angela Alsobrooks’s campaign, as she battles Republican Larry Hogan in a key Senate race that could determine control of the chamber.
“The stakes of this election. I think about my 19-year-old daughter who’s in college. She’s a sophomore, and she literally has fewer rights in this moment than her grandmother and mother. So, when we think about reproductive freedom for our daughters, not just abortion care, but think about contraception and IVF and the efforts really to roll back the rights of women.”
Florida is another state with abortion measures on November’s ballot.
It currently has a six week ban in effect, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
These abortion rights group members are busy courting Latino voters, hoping they’ll support the motion to codify rights to termination in the state’s constitution.
“So right now we’re going out to knock doors in central Palm Beach County to talk to voters about Amendment four, which is on our ballot here in Florida on November 5th. And basically, if we pass Amendment four with 60 per cent, it’s going to do two things. Number one, it’s going to codify reproductive rights within Florida state’s constitution. And number two is it’s going to repeal Florida’s current extreme six week abortion ban that has basically no exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.”
In Washington, they’re trying to hedge their bets.
Washington has seen numbers of out-of-state women traveling there for abortions increase in the last two years, when numerous jurisdictions – including nearby Idaho – implemented bans in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Roe versus Wade precedent.
Democratic Governor Jay Inslee has a first-in-the-nation stockpile of abortion drugs he says will serve as insurance against future lawsuits – or Donald Trump.
“We have plans for its distribution, you know, depending how the next several months goes, so to make sure that it can ultimately be used as well. It is extremely effective, safe.”
But abortion still remains prominent on the national stage.
Vice President Kamala Harris – now the Democrat presidential nominee – has made it a centrepiece of her campaign.
“When I am president of the United States and when Congress passes a bill to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade, I will sign it into law.”
So has Donald Trump.
“I think it’s when I, look, for 52 years, they wanted to bring abortion back to the states. They wanted to get rid of Roe v Wade. And that’s Democrats, Republicans and independents and everybody, liberals, conservatives, everybody wanted it back in the states, and I did that.”
But why is abortion such a major issue?
And why is it drawn along such predictable partisan lines: with Democrats in support, and Republicans opposed?
When the practice was legalised in 1973, it was in fact easy to find opposites in Congress, and religious organisations.
The Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest evangelical denomination, was on record as saying abortion should be allowed in many circumstances.
By contrast, a newly elected Senator from Delaware called Joe Biden said the court’s ruling went “too far”, while Republican first lady Betty Ford was strongly in favour of Roe versus Wade.
“It was the best thing in the world when the Supreme Court voted to legalise abortion and in my words, bring it out of the backwoods and put it in the hospitals where it belonged. I thought it was a great, great decision.”
Even Donald Trump himself had a clear position in this 1999 interview on Meet the Press.
“I’m very pro-choice.”
So what changed?
Some historians say it was the conservative movement itself.
Abortion had long been opposed by some sections of the religious community.
But evangelical voters tended to stay away from politics – until conservatives like Paul Weyrich entered the picture.
PHYLLIS SCHALFY
: “Conservatives were wandering around in the political wilderness. And then Paul Weyrick came to Washington.”
At first, he was able to garner the support of evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell, who were angry about court decisions forcing schools to de-segregate, and taking away the tax free status of schools effectively set up to educate whites away from black students.
In the 1970s, as that became less effective, Weyrich harnessed abortion as THE galvanising issue.
“Those people were not active in politics – and I served as sort of a coach to get them active in the political process.”
The first instance of that strategy being effective was in the 1978 midterms in Minnesota – and then, the election of Ronald Reagan.
It’s continued in that direction ever since.
And like Minnesota in 1978, much of that campaigning has been fought on a state level.
While in some states like New York, access has been a given [[and three states recently voted to enshrine the right to terminations: California, Michigan and Vermont]], in others, authorities did their best to block terminations.
Going into this year’s presidential election, Current Vice President Kamala Harris says there are abortion bans in more than 20 states – many with no exceptions, even for rape and incest.
“1 in 3 women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban. This includes Georgia and every state in the South except Virginia.”
The reasons for this lack of access have varied.
Even in states without an outright ban, there are what’s known as TRAP laws – or Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers.
In Texas, it’s known as HB-2 – passed in 2013 – and as this NBC report makes clear:
“It requires abortion clinics to meet the same building standards as outpatient surgical centres, and requires their doctors to have hospital admitting privileges.”
Nine other states have similar hospital requirements to Texas, including Mississipi.
The Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said in 2018 that the law was about helping women, not hindering them.
“By requiring that abortionists obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals, we are protecting women’s health.”
But advocates say that’s far from what happens in reality.
Some say because doctors are wary of prosecution, women are being put in danger because they have to get sick before they’re given care.
CNN reported this happened to one Texas woman, Amanda Zuraski, who was at first denied an abortion after she lost her baby – until she developed an infection that could have killed her.
“Texas law allows for abortion if the mother has a life-threatening physical condition that places her at risk of death or substantial impairment. But Texas lawmakers haven’t spelled out what that means. They haven’t said exactly when an abortion can be provided.”
Others have reported being forced to travel for services not available in their home state.
Megan King is a Republican voter in Wisconsin who discovered her third child had no kidneys, the bladder was missing, and therefore had no chance of survival.
“I wanted to be induced and deliver my baby. I wanted to be able to meet him. And I, I just felt strongly that we made this baby and I wanted to be the one to bring him into the world. So, in order to do that, we needed to find a clinic or a hospital — not a clinic, a hospital – that would allow us to do that. And we could not do that in Wisconsin because it was illegal. So we had to cross state lines.”
While Amanda and Megan survived, advocates say there are plenty of women who do not.
A ProPublica investigation found that at least two women in Georgia died after doctors either declined or delayed a procedure known as a D & C to clear their womb of fetal tissue.
Kamala Harris says this happens with alarming regularity.
“Women are being denied care during miscarriages, some only being treated once they developed sepsis. They didn’t want this. And we know that women have died because of Trump abortion bans.”
J.D Vance and Donald Trump have continued to maintain their stance that abortion should be regulated by the states.
There’s still clear support from Republicans for Trump and abortion bans – like this University of Alabama Senior, Kyle Walsh.
“I love his stance on abortion. I love his stance on gun rights and freedom in general. I think that we have started to cower and I don’t think as Americans we should cower. I think we should be the voice everyone listens to.”
But the waters have been muddied by two things.
First, a Reuters poll conducted this year found a majority of voters, including 34 per cent of Republicans, want the next president to protect or increase abortion access.
And second, there’s former First Lady Melania Trump, emerging on the pro-choice side in an upcoming memoir and this interview with Fox News.
“I want to decide what I want to do with my body. I think – I don’t want government in my personal business.”
It’s not clear if this is a sign that Republicans are once again softening their stance on abortion – or if this is simply an issue between Melania and her husband.
A look at the numbers doesn’t offer much insight on these questions for the average punter.
In the 2022 midterms, Cato Institute Director of Polling Emily Ekins had said support for abortion was widespread – and energised the Democratic voting base much more than the Republican side.
“So people who are upset over the overturning of Roe v. Wade are a lot more passionate about this issue than the people who are happy about Roe. v. Wade. So to the extent to which Republicans are associating themselves with abortion laws and things like that, it doesn’t seem like that would be a huge advantage to them going into the midterms.”
Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill also says abortion ballots have tended to favour Democrats.
“Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade in 2022, voters in all seven states with abortion related ballot questions sided with abortion rights advocates, and some political scientists say that if any ballot issue could impact November’s elections, it would be abortion.”
But Darrell West, a Brookings Institution Senior Fellow, says it’s not that simple.
He says the influence of abortion in this election – and the outcome – could come down to one or two swing states.
“One of the top issues in this election that favours Republicans is immigration policy. People are worried about the border. They think too many undocumented individuals are coming over the border, drawing on American resources, taking jobs, relying on social services. They don’t like this, and this has been a big plus for former President Trump. On the Democratic side, abortion and reproductive rights in general has been a great issue for Democrats. The majority of Americans are on the side of Kamala Harris on that particular issue. Many women are concerned about being able to control their own health care decisions. So we have a situation where immigration and reproductive rights are very important issues to voters, but they cut in very different ways – with one issue favouring Republicans and the other issue favouring Democrats.”