What’s the issue?
Abortion’s front and center this election, and it’s a full-blown dumpster fire. Since Roe got torpedoed in 2022, your rights depend on your ZIP code.
But reproductive justice is more than just abortion. Black women activists in the ‘90s coined the term after seeing that the mainstream movement was missing the mark. It’s about bodily autonomy, full stop. It’s about abortion access, birth control, comprehensive sex ed, the right to parent children in safe and sustainable communities, and why giving birth is still a death sentence for too many. Some states are speed-running abortion bans, while others are fortifying rights like they’re prepping for a siege. Politicians are utilizing their power to instill their personal and religious beliefs into the laws that govern us and we’re seeing real Americans die because of it. It’s a nationwide game of reproductive roulette, and everyone’s caught in the crossfire.
Why does it matter? What’s at stake?
This isn’t just about whether you can terminate a pregnancy – it’s about who calls the shots on our bodies. Post-Roe, politicians are playing musical chairs with everyone’s rights, and guess who’s left standing when the music stops? Patients and doctors.
“Fetal personhood” laws further complicate matters, turning routine healthcare into a legal minefield. Republican officials have voiced mixed messaging over whether patients will face criminal charges. In 2016, during an MSNBC Town Hall Trump said “there has to be punishment” for women who have abortions. More recently, he told TIME this year that that decision to prosecute should be made by individual states. Doctors are also caught in the mix, wondering if treating a miscarriage might land them in cuffs.
And let’s be clear: This upheaval isn’t hitting everyone equally. BIPOC communities, already facing systemic healthcare disparities, are getting the worst of it. They’re navigating a maze of policies that are exacerbating long-standing inequalities.
For example:
- Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to CDC data.
- Low-income Latinas have a 28% higher risk of severe pregnancy complications than non-Hispanic, white women, while Latinas with private insurance have a 22% higher risk.
- For Indigenous women, rates of pregnancy-related deaths are twice as high as white women.
So what’s on the line? Your medical privacy. Your health decisions. Your future. For some, it’s literally life or death. This isn’t just another ballot issue – it could make health decisions for you.
Current status
In the wake of the Dobbs decision, which sent abortion back to states to decide their own laws, the United States faces an unprecedented patchwork of reproductive rights laws. With federal constitutional protection for abortion gone, states are writing their own rules, and it’s chaos. The South’s become a dead zone for abortion access, forcing people to trek hundreds of miles for care. It’s not just inconvenient – it’s life-altering, and for some, it’s impossible.
Low-income folks can’t afford these cross-country “abortion road trips.” Disabled individuals face extra hurdles in traveling. BIPOC communities, already navigating an inequitable healthcare system, are hit hardest. The result? People are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies or face serious health risks. In some cases, it’s a death sentence when pregnancy complications arise.
This isn’t just about choice anymore. It can be who lives and who dies based on their ZIP code and bank account. The Dobbs decision didn’t just overturn Roe – many believe it flipped the table on healthcare equity across the nation. Advocates say we’re witnessing a seismic shift in reproductive rights, with ripple effects touching every corner of American society.
Where do the presidential candidates stand on this issue?
Kamala Harris (Democrat):
Both while on the ticket as President Biden’s running mate and now as she runs to win the presidency herself, Harris has taken on reproductive justice as one of her top issues. In March, she made history by becoming the first president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic when she toured a Minnesota Planned Parenthood.
Harris has continuously expressed wanting to pass a federal policy to protect reproductive rights, including during the September 10 Presidential Debate, when she referred to abortion bans as “Trump abortion bans.”
On Sept. 17 she spoke out against Senate Republicans’ vote to block a bill that would protect IVF in a statement saying: “Our administration will always fight to protect reproductive freedoms, which must include access to IVF. We stand with the majority of Americans – Republicans and Democrats alike – who support protecting access to fertility treatments. And we continue to call on Congress to finally pass a bill that restores reproductive freedom.”
Harris’ campaign website says she will restore and protect reproductive freedoms, though it doesn’t list an exact policy.
Donald Trump (Republican):
Trump has pegged himself “the most pro-life president ever,” bragged about putting in place the Supreme Court that dismantled Roe, and has continuously compared himself to former president Ronald Regan (all of which Reckon wrote about in February), however he has seemingly distanced himself from his firm anti-abortion talking points and the GOP’s Project 2025 while on the campaign trail.
Trump says that he will not back a federal abortion ban, insisting that he gave Americans what they wanted by dismantling Roe and bringing the issue down to states to decide individually. This however, is false. Polls from Pew Research Center, both in 2022 and this year, find that more Americans supported Roe, with 63% saying in May that abortion should be legal in all circumstances.
Though there is no section for reproductive care on his website, his policy page highlights “better healthcare choices at lower costs” including stopping COVID mandates and “restoring medical freedom,” ending surprise medical billing, and further reducing the cost of prescription drugs and health insurance premiums.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Independent):
*Kennedy has now dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump.
RFK’s stance on abortion has changed gears. Last year, he told NBC reporters he supports a national ban after 3 months of pregnancy, then quickly backtracked. In May, he said during a podcast taping that he does not support government limiting abortion, even later in term: “I think we have to leave it to the women rather than the state.”
Kennedy’s campaign website highlights a “More Choices, More Life”:
- Referring to the candidate as a medical freedom advocate
- Says he supports a woman’s right to choose until a fetus is viable
- Subsidized daycare initiative which would redirect funding from Ukraine to pay 100% of the care costs of children under give living beneath the poverty line, and cap cost at 10% of family income for everyone else
- Reduce abortions by strengthening adoption infrastructure and fund actuaries for “in need” women to have babies
Cornel West (Independent):
West’s website does not list abortion as a policy issue itself, but is acknowledged under Gender Justice stating that access to reproductive freedom, including abortion, contraception, and fertility treatments, as a fundamental right.
The site also lists section for Black Maternal Justice which states:
- Funding increases for maternal health initiatives aimed at Black women
- Mandated cultural competency training for all obstetrics and gynecology healthcare professionals
- Expansion of pre and postnatal community health worker programs
- Extending coverage of midwife and doula services under health insurance plans
Jill Stein (Green Party):
According to her website, Jill Stein calls for universal healthcare. Her administration plans to:
- implement National Improved Medicare for All ahead of establishing a “UK-style” National Healthcare Service which would replace private medical settings with publicly-owned practices and insurance
- Advance reproductive rights and codify Roe v. Wade
- Cancel medical debt
- Phase out private funding and expand public funding of medical/pharmaceutical research conducted by publish agencies, universities and medical schools
Chase Oliver (Libertarian):
Chase Oliver has become the face of the Libertarians, the third largest U.S. political party.
According to Chase Oliver’s website, the candidate stands for less government interference, including not interfering in abortion restrictions before viability.
“If you’re not harming someone with force, fraud, coercion, theft or violence, if you’re not doing any of those bad things, your life is your life. Your body is your body. Your business is your business, and your property is your property. It’s not mine, and it’s not the government’s,” his website says.
Key bills to know:
Missouri
- The Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative: This initiative could enshrine this amendment in Missouri’s state constitution, preventing the government from interfering with Missourians’ right to reproductive freedom, which is defined in the text as the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive healthcare including abortion, prenatal care, miscarriage care and more.
- Voting yes supports adding this protection to the constitution. Voting no opposes this measure.
- Further reading: Missouri could be the latest state to put abortion on the ballot
Arizona
- Proposition 139, The Right to Abortion Initiative: This bill could add an amendment to Arizona’s state constitution that would establish abortion as a fundamental right, up to the point of viability, which is generally around 24 weeks.
- Voting yes supports adding this amendment to the constitution. Voting no opposes this measure.
- Further reading: Abortion access in the Southwest: How Arizona and Nevada can shape the future, Clinics close, women flee, doctors risk it all? Inside Arizona’s abortion nightmare
Colorado
- Colorado Right to Abortion and Health Insurance Coverage Initiative: This amendment would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution and allow health insurance coverage for abortion services.
- Voting yes would constitutionally protect the right to abortion and allow public funds to be used for abortion services. Voting no would oppose this measure.
Nevada
- Right to Abortion Initiative: This initiative states that abortion is a fundamental right which the state cannot interfere with up to the point of viability, except in cases to protect the life or health of the pregnant patient. Given Nevada law, voters would have to approve this ballot initiative in this election and again in 2026 in order for it to be added to the constitution.
- Voting yes supports adding abortion as a state constitutional right. Voting no opposes this initiative.
- Further reading: Abortion access in the Southwest: How Arizona and Nevada can shape the future
Maryland
- Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment: This amendment would add protection of reproductive freedom, including abortion, to the Maryland Constitution’s Declaration of Rights and protect both providers and patients from civil or criminal penalties.
- Voting yes supports making reproductive freedom a constitutional right. Voting no opposes this.
- Further reading: Maryland’s ballot measure to protect reproductive freedom: What it is and why it matters
Florida
- Florida Amendment 4, Right to Abortion Initiative: Floridians could end the state’s controversial six-week ban in this election, voting to prevent future laws from restricting abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health.
- Voting yes supports approving abortion as a constitutional right. Voting no opposes adding abortion as a constitutional right in Florida.
- Further reading: 5 abortion funds fighting back against Florida’s 6-week ban (ans how you can help, Is Florida the next state to protect abortion rights?
Key Points for Voters
- Decisions made at the state level will impact those living in the state, as well as those who travel there for abortion. For example, when Florida’s six-week ban went into effect in May, many parts of the South essentially lost one of the closest states they could travel to for care. According to a Guttmacher analysis published this month, clinician-provided abortions dropped by 30% in Florida as a result of the ban.
- How people vote on abortion impacts more than JUST abortion. As we’ve seen in Alabama for example, fetal viability laws to restrict abortion impacted how IVF is carried out in the state and has now resulted in clinics moving embryos miles away.
Resources and Further Reading
Related News
