Opinion: Harris’s prioritization of abortion is an unprecedented and risky strategy

No presidential candidate who has secured their party’s nomination, Republican or Democrat, has ever placed abortion at the forefront of his or her campaign.

Yet Kamala Harris is doing just that. At her first campaign rally in 2024, she pledged to “stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans.” She declared , “I am being precise — we need to put into law the protections of Roe v. Wade. That means returning to where we were before the Dobbs decision.”

And Harris’s selection of Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate doubles down on her extreme strategy to put abortion at the top of the ticket. The Harris-Walz ticket is the most pro-abortion in U.S. history, openly advocating for zero regulations on abortion and even denying healthcare to babies who survive abortions.

In Minnesota, Walz removed a requirement for doctors to report cases where babies survived abortions, an act so extreme that even former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) advised him to tone it down — advice he publicly rejected.

With Democrats placing abortion at the forefront of their platform, Republicans should boldly highlight the stark contrast between the two parties. One side stands for protecting the lives of both the mother and the unborn child, while the other advocates for the right to terminate any pregnancy right up to the moment of birth.

If Harris-Walz is the most pro-abortion ticket in history, Trump-Vance could be considered the most pro-life. No Republican president has achieved more on the issue than Trump, who defunded Planned Parenthood International, removed tax funding for abortions overseas, and appointed three Supreme Court Justices who ultimately helped overturn the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade precedent. Trump also pushed to defund Planned Parenthood immediately after taking office in 2017, but his efforts were thwarted by hesitant Republicans, missing a historic opportunity.

While prioritizing abortion as a campaign issue is unprecedented, the outcome remains uncertain. However, Harris’s radical pro-abortion campaign has already galvanized the pro-life base like never before. With recent changes at the Republican National Committee, pro-life advocates are now united around a new objective: painting Harris as an abortion “extremist” who “can’t name a single limit on abortion she supports.”

This aggressive stance on abortion has created a defining issue for the 2024 election, setting the stage for an intense ideological battle. While Harris and her supporters view this as a strategy to rally their base, the pro-life movement sees it as an opportunity to expose the extremism of her position.

Democrats like to argue that the 2022 midterm elections prove that a radically pro-abortion stance is a winning issue. Seven states have since passed pro-abortion laws or enshrined abortion rights in their constitutions. But this argument overlooks two significant points.

First, since Roe was overturned, 25 states have enacted pro-life laws that either highly regulate or ban abortion outright. Much of this legislation included funding for single mothers who choose life, and many of these laws garnered bipartisan support — no Democrat wants to be seen voting against aid for single mothers.

Second, the 2022 midterms were a knee-jerk reaction to the Roe decision just months earlier — and even then, it wasn’t a pro-abortion landslide. Pro-life governors Brian Kemp of Georgia, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Ron DeSantis of Florida all won by significant margins in states with some of the most restrictive bills. Rather than shy away from the issue, they defended their positions using arguments from morality, science, and common sense.

Kamala Harris is betting everything on abortion, but this isn’t the same debate as in the past. Today’s discussion centers on extreme positions, such as abortion at 40 weeks, deregulating abortion pills, removing doctors from the process, taxpayer-funded abortions, and denial of healthcare to babies who survive abortions. Most well-intentioned abortion supporters don’t back these extreme stances.

Prioritizing a radical pro-abortion agenda is a high-stakes gamble that could backfire, becoming overkill for those who genuinely support abortion and motivating a large pro-life turnout.

By highlighting the stark differences, Americans cannot claim a lack of clarity on the abortion issue, with one party making it the number one issue for the first time ever to the point of offering free abortions at the convention. The celebration of abortion is a risky, unproven message that Democrats seem to be clinging to in hopes of a November victory.

Shawn Carney is president and CEO of 40 Days for Life and bestselling author of four books, including “What to Say When: The Complete New Guide to Discussing Abortion.”

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