Will abortion rights questions on ballots in 9 states tilt elections?
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00:00American voters went to the polls in 2022 and 2023 and delivered victories for Democrats in
00:06major races across the country by putting abortion rights at the center of their campaigns.
00:14Democrats are hoping it works again in 2024,
00:17with polls showing overwhelming support for legalizing abortion.
00:22A vast majority of Americans, or 63 percent, say the procedure should be legal in all or most cases,
00:29while 36 percent say it should be illegal.
00:34The issue has left Donald Trump in a political conundrum. He proudly takes credit for naming
00:40Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe v. Wade. And his running mate,
00:44J.D. Vance, supports a national ban on abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
00:51But Trump himself has taken a step back, leading the Republican Party to soften its platform and
00:56adopt his belief that the issue should be left up to individual states.
01:01The states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both,
01:05and whatever they decide must be the law of the land, in this case, the law of the state.
01:12Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022,
01:16more than 20 states have passed laws restricting or banning abortion, particularly in the South.
01:22Last November, voters in Ohio turned out in big numbers to enshrine a right to abortion
01:27in the state constitution by a double-digit margin, overturning an abortion ban passed
01:33by the Republican legislature. Democrats see it as a sign of Trump's vulnerability,
01:38and a state he won twice, in 2016 and in 2020,
01:42and also as a winning issue in Democratic races across the board.
01:47This is what democracy looks like.
01:50To truly protect reproductive freedoms, we must restore the protections of Roe,
01:58because, you see, what the United States Supreme Court took, Congress can put back in place.
02:05A poll in The Wall Street Journal showed that abortion is the number one issue for a majority
02:10of suburban women in swing states. Several states have pro-choice measures on the November ballot,
02:16which Democrats hope will drive turnout and help them win the White House.