Harris bets on reproductive rights while Trump plays down anti-abortion moves

Transcript

00:00News overseas, Vice President and President wannabe Kamala Harris is milking the reproductive

00:06rights issue to drive more Democrat support and voters to the polls in November.

00:11On the other hand, her rival, former President Donald Trump is downplaying the magnitude

00:15of the issue as V.U.A.'s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.

00:20U.S. women's reproductive rights are often center stage at Vice President and Democratic

00:26presidential candidate Kamala Harris' campaign events.

00:30We, who believe in reproductive freedom, will stop Donald Trump's extreme abortion bans

00:41because we trust women to make decisions about their own body and not have their government

00:50tell them what to do.

00:52Former President Donald Trump praised the Supreme Court's 2022 overturning of federal

00:58protections on abortion access.

01:00He stresses he favors each U.S. state deciding on whether to grant or block it.

01:06The Democrats really, and not all of them, because most of them agree with us, they're

01:10the radical ones, whereas our position is that abortion is now back to the states.

01:17Trump and the Republican Party have recently toned down their abortion rhetoric, which

01:22at times included calls for national abortion bans.

01:26That's no accident, says Rutgers University polling expert Ashley Koning.

01:31We saw in the midterms and in special elections, when abortion is either directly or indirectly

01:37on the ballot, how consequential that has been to elections and that the voters are

01:42coming out on the side in support of reproductive health issues and abortion issues.

01:48Democrats are betting on a pro-choice platform and expressing support for abortion providers.

01:54For instance, on July 23rd, Vice President Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, visited a reproductive

02:00health center in McLean, Virginia.

02:03The move was praised by the center's medical director, Dr. Jessica Rubino.

02:08I do believe that this is one of the most important topics for the election.

02:12It is really important that the Vice President, that the second gentleman, focus on this,

02:18continue to engage with us and work on coming up with a plan.

02:22Among anti-abortion groups, there are those who doubt that reproductive rights will drive

02:27a record number of voters to the polls in November.

02:31The Trump ticket probably won't sharply increase their focus on abortion, even as the Harris

02:37campaign does, in the opinion of National Right to Life Committee President, Carol Tobias.

02:43I think they're going to be talking about what they think is important, and I don't

02:47know how much they will be responding to her.

02:50I think they definitely have to talk about the unborn child being a member of the human

02:54family that deserves protection.

02:57Analysts expect the Trump campaign will continue to prioritize the economy when courting voters,

03:04as historically, that has been Americans' top concern in presidential elections.

03:10Veronica Banderas Iglesias, VOA News, McLean, Virginia.