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Morning Edition
Cathy Wurzer and Gracie Stockton

‘In certain circumstances’: GOP grapples with abortion rights, a key issue in Harris campaign

Pro-life and pro-choice advocates gather at the Capitol
Pro-life and pro-choice advocates gather at the Minnesota State Capitol building to demonstrate during the Minnesota Senate debate on the PRO Act, which if passed would codify the right to abortion in Minnesota state law on Jan. 27, 2023.
Nicole Neri for MPR News

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While Kamala Harris is not yet the official Democratic party’s presidential nominee, many of her supporters are hopeful she’ll bring her perspective as a woman — and a woman of color — to the top job in U.S. politics. But not everyone is on board with her stance on reproductive rights.

Abortion is a key issue for the 2024 election, and a divisive one following the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and 14 states subsequently enacting complete bans on the procedure.

However, the topic was mostly absent from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, which, in turn, featured daily themes around the economy, crime and safety, immigration and foreign affairs. The GOP softened its stance on reproductive rights in a newly approved party platform, moving away from a federal ban on abortion in favor of state-led decisions.

“I think most Republican leaders, ironically, are now where Bill Clinton was back in the 1990s, which is they believe abortion should be safe, rare and legal in certain instances,” Annette Meeks, CEO & founder of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota, told MPR News Wednesday.

“I think that’s going to be really the fight and the fight is going to be very narrow this time because we know the electorate is pretty narrowly and evenly divided,” Meeks said.

Minnesota is currently under a Democratic trifecta with a DFL governor and majority control of both state chambers, so any challenge by Republicans to amend state law would be difficult to pass. However, all House seats are up for reelection in November, and the DFL has a slim majority after several resignations.

“We will be fighting on the edges in many of the battleground states and former President Trump has said he wants to make Minnesota a battleground state,” Meeks said.

Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance are scheduled to speak in St. Cloud on Saturday. Top Trump advisers emphasized their chances of winning Minnesota during the Republican National Convention, citing favorable polling and enthusiasm for their side that was stronger than what Democrats had been experiencing.

When the high court upheld Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, overturning Roe, the decision centered around Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act. That law bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy but has exceptions for fetal abnormalities and medical emergencies.

A majority of abortions in the U.S. are medication, not surgical, according to data from the CDC and Guttmacher Institute and analyzed by Pew Research. They’ve also increased in number overall since June 2022, with telehealth abortions now accounting for one in five procedures, KFF Health News reports.

Meeks believes the loudest discourse will focus on extremes — such as groups associated with Trump arguing Harris wants to allow abortion on demand up until birth and Democrats accusing the GOP of eradicating in vitro fertilization — rather than circumstances of rape, incest or maternal health mortality.

The 20 states with total abortion bans or early gestational limits share exceptions for when a pregnant person’s life is at risk, though six have no exceptions when a pregnant person’s health is at risk. Ten of the states do not allow abortions in cases of rape or incest; 13 have no exceptions for fetal anomalies, according to KFF.

Regarding the GOP’s new, concise stance on abortion, Meeks, a two-time RNC platform committee member, is pleased.

Once “unwieldy and just too verbose,” the platform goes from mentioning abortion several dozen times in 2016 to just once in 2024. Ultimately, “it’s a decision made state by state. And let’s leave it at that,” Meeks said.