After a weekend of changing stances and walking back positions on abortion from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ campaign will launch a “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour through battleground states.
The bus tour, which kicked off Tuesday in Florida, will travel to Georgia, making several stops in Savannah, Macon and metro Atlanta on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
“This election is about freedom — and the American people want and deserve the freedom to make their own health care decisions,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said. “Our campaign is hitting the road to meet voters in their communities (and) underscore the stakes of this election for reproductive freedom.”
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, who also serves as state Democratic Party chair, will join advocates on several stops of the tour.
During an interview last week, Trump said, as a Florida voter, he would vote in favor of a November ballot question to overturn that state’s abortion restrictions. In Florida, as in Georgia, abortions are banned in most cases once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, which is typically about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.
“I think the six (weeks) is too short,” Trump told NBC News. “There has to be more time, and I’ve told them that. I want more weeks.”
Trump’s nomination of three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court during his presidency helped lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court decision that determined there was a constitutional right to an abortion. The overturning of Roe v. Wade paved the way for laws such as Georgia’s and Florida’s to take effect.
The next day, Trump said he would vote against the ballot measure, calling it “radical.” Also last week, he said he supported the public funding of in vitro fertilization, an expensive process often used to help people who have difficulties conceiving children. Anti-abortion activists are split on this issue, with some viewing the discarding of unused fertilized eggs as part of the process as killing a child.
Claire Bartlett, executive director of the anti-abortion group Georgia Life Alliance, said she wasn’t surprised by Trump flip-flopping.
“Frankly, I have not had 100% confidence that he was pro-life,” Bartlett said. “I respect what he did when he was in office with the Supreme Court, but he’s never indicated he was some pro-life champion.”
Bartlett said several organizations began contacting Trump’s inner circle to help “educate” him on the issue.
“The most loyal voter in the Republican Party is the pro-life voter,” Bartlett said. “So you’re harming your base when you waffle. When you have a dependable loyal base in what is a close race at the moment, he needs that 3% of loyalty.”
Harris has long said she supports allowing women to make the choice that is best for their family and their health, including abortion if necessary. She and Democrats view abortion as a winning issue among female voters and have spent the past two years tying Republicans to the issue.
According to a recent poll by the health care policy research foundation KFF, a majority of female voters from both major parties who were surveyed said women should be able to get an abortion in cases of emergency, and that there should be a federal law allowing abortions in cases of rape or incest, even in states where it is currently illegal.
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