Editor’s note: Amid the constant headlines, rallies, campaign events and political ads, it can be difficult to know exactly where presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on the issues. TribLive is presenting a series of stories to help cut through the noise and provide an in-depth look at the perspectives of Harris and Trump on the biggest topics. Today’s segment focuses on abortion.

Reproductive health care and abortion have been polarizing political issues for decades, but they have grown increasingly important to voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Dozens of states have restricted or outright banned abortion since the court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, but abortion-rights advocates in seven states have prevailed in ballot measures affirming access or defeating efforts to curtail abortion rights.

This year, at least 10 states have ballot questions asking voters to protect abortion rights.

Some Pennsylvania politicians who ran on protecting abortion access prevailed in 2022’s elections, including state Rep. Arvind Venkat, D-McCandless, and state Rep. Mandy Steele, D-Fox Chapel. Their wins helped Democrats in the state House flip 12 seats and take a narrow majority in the chamber.

A late September poll from Spotlight PA/MassINC shows that 49% of likely voters in Pennsylvania said abortion is a top issue, just behind gun policy, immigration, the future of democracy and the economy.

Pennsylvania has not seen a ballot measure, and its abortion laws have remained unchanged since Roe fell. The state allows abortions through 24 weeks of pregnancy, later if the health or life of the mother is at risk.

Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, is a supporter of abortion access and has vowed to veto any abortion restriction bills. But a federal ban passed through Congress and signed by the president would override the law in Pennsylvania and in all other states.

With the future of abortion rights unclear, where do Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump stand?

Harris

The vice president is urging Congress to pass a law reinstituting the abortion protections of Roe v. Wade. She said she would sign such a law as president.

In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the U.S. Constitution generally protected the right to have an abortion.

Harris opposes a national abortion ban and said she would veto any ban passed by Congress.

“As president, she will never allow a national abortion ban to become law,” reads Harris’ campaign website. “And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, she will sign it.”

Passing a law to restore Roe v. Wade depends on which party controls the U.S. House and Senate. Republicans, who have controlled the House for the last two years, have not brought up any abortion rights bills in the chamber.

Democrats control the Senate, 51-49. In July, a bill to restore Roe was brought up. It failed 49-44, however, unable to clear the 60-vote hurdle needed to defeat a filibuster and bring legislation to a vote.

All Republican senators — with the exceptions of Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins of Maine — voted against the measure.

In September, Harris said she supported ending filibuster rules for a vote on restoring Roe v. Wade so that it would need only a simple majority to pass.

“We should eliminate the filibuster for Roe … to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom, and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body,” Harris told Wisconsin Public Radio on Sept. 24.

Harris also has touted efforts under President Joe Biden’s administration to expand access to abortion pills through the mail and to challenge legal threats to women who travel across state lines to seek abortions. She has criticized efforts by Republican lawmakers to threaten with prison time doctors and nurses who provide abortions.

In March, Harris became the first vice president (or president) to visit a clinic that provides abortions when she stopped at a Planned Parenthood in St. Paul, Minn.

She has attacked Trump for bragging about eliminating Roe. In May, Trump posted on social media, “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.”

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The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn Roe v. Wade. Three of the justices were appointed by Trump.

During a May 14 speech at a campaign event in New York City, Harris said her support for abortion access can be traced to her time in high school in Montreal, when her best friend confided that she was being sexually abused by her stepfather.

Harris said she demanded her friend live with the Harris family and that incident is what motivated her to become a prosecutor.

“When I talk about the immorality of laws that, for example, would make no exception for rape or incest on the issue of abortion, I am talking about an issue that I am very familiar with in terms of how it plays out in reality,” Harris said.

In April 2016, as California attorney general — a post she held from 2011 to ’17 — Harris opened an investigation into antiabortion activist David Daleiden, who is alleged to have illegally recorded conversations with Planned Parenthood executives. Daleiden claimed that the executives were scheming to sell aborted fetal tissue for profit, but those claims were debunked.

Harris’ investigation led to 15 felony charges against Daleiden. The criminal case is ongoing. Planned Parenthood successfully sued Daleiden for more than $2 million in damages, and the U.S. Supreme Court last year rejected Daleiden’s appeal.

Trump

The former president’s stances on abortion and reproductive health care have shifted over the years, even as scrutiny of his position has increased since Roe was overturned.

• In 1999, Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he supported access to abortion.

• In 2011, at a Conservative Political Action Conference, he said he supported restrictions on abortion.

• While a candidate for president in 2016, Trump said during a town hall televised on MSNBC that women who seek abortions should face “some form of punishment.”

• In January 2023, Trump blamed Republicans for underperforming in the 2022 midterm elections, writing on social media that they handled the “abortion issue” poorly. He criticized Republicans who didn’t support exemptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.

• In March, Trump signaled during an interview with New York’s WABC radio that he would be open to supporting a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

• In August, Trump criticized a Florida ballot measure seeking to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, generally around six weeks of pregnancy. Following backlash from Republicans, Trump saidhe would vote to uphold the ballot measure.

• During the Sept. 10 debate against Harris, Trump said he would not support a national abortion ban.

Trump said at a September rally in Indiana, Pa., that a federal law enshrining abortion rights under Roe v. Wade could never garner enough support in Congress.

“It will never move back to the federal government,” Trump said during the Sept. 23 appearance at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “We’ll never have the votes to do so, and nobody should want it to.”

Trump has said abortion laws should rest with the states. He claimed during the debate that the decision to overturn Roe has been popular among Americans.

Polling refutes that claim.

A CNN poll from May found that 65% of Americans disapprove of overturning Roe and 34% approve. The Spotlight PA/MassINC poll taken in late September said 54% of likely Pennsylvania voters believed overturning Roe was wrong compared to 38% who approved.

Harris has attempted to tie Trump to the abortion policies in Project 2025, a blueprint for a Republican presidential administration written by a conservative think tank. Trump has tried to distance himself from the document and claims he has never read it.

Project 2025 does not call for a nationwide abortion ban. It does, however, lay out proposals to prevent abortions and restrict certain contraceptive coverage. That includes revoking federal approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, which was used in about 55% of Pennsylvania’s 18,370 abortions in 2021, according to state Health Department data.

The blueprint also proposes ending the mandate for insurance to cover morning-after pills. It would use an 1873 law, called the Comstock Act, to prosecute people who send abortion pills through the mail.

Trump told CBS News that he would not use the Comstock Act to ban mail delivery of abortion pills if elected. “The federal government should have nothing to do with this issue,” he said Aug. 19.

Trump has denied any association with Project 2025 and has called the blueprint “extreme.” However, at least 140 people in his circle are connected to Project 2025, according to CNN.

Trump’s campaign website does not mention abortion, and no abortion-related policy is listed as part of his Agenda 47. The website refers users to the official Republican Party platform that was passed at this year’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

The GOP platform reiterates Trump’s statements about allowing states the right to create their own abortion laws. It says the party opposes “late-term abortion” but doesn’t define what that means. It also says it supports mothers and policies that advance prenatal care, access to birth control and fertility treatments.

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