Finally, Presidential Candidates Are Talking About Abortion

By Lauren Rearick


With the continued passage and consideration of legislation that would try to ban abortion in states including Ohio, Alabama, and Mississippi, reproductive rights were understandably a focal point throughout the Democratic Primary debate on Wednesday, June 26.


The say of abortion, particiuarly throughout a presidental debate, is especially significant because the topic has previously been imagined something of a lightning rod — and only recently have Democrat lawmakers shifted their views so uniformally towards being pro-choice. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump discussed Roe v. Wade while in their third and final debate in 2016, nevertheless the topic has historically been an outlier rather than a tentpole for several past candidates. All of that is changing, as reproductive rights — and reproductive justice, as Julián Castro pointed out — is top of mind for several Residents of the United States as we reach the 2020 election.


As soon as Washington Governor Jay Inslee tried to take credit for being the only candidate at Wednesday’s debate to pass “a law protecting a woman’s right of reproductive health,” Senator Klobuchar corrected him. “There are three girls up here who have fought pretty hard for a woman’s right to choose,” she noted.


Senator Klobuchar’s comment made reference to her fellow contenders for the Democratic presidential nominee: Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressperson Tulsi Gabbard. All three previously shared their opposition to a 20-week abortion ban recommended earlier this year by Senator Lindsay Graham; the bill went unpassed in the Senate.


Castro shared his support for reproductive rights that would extend to members of the transgender community. “I don’t believe in only reproductive freedom, I believe in reproductive justice,” he said. “What that shows is that just because a woman—or, let's not forget someone, in the trans community...Is poor, doesn't mean they shouldn't have the correct to physical training that right to choose.”


But he also made a unfortunate mistake when he identified “trans female” people rather than trans boys or trans nonbinary people who were appointed female at birth. Twitter was quick to pick up on that misidentification.


Senator Warren pointed to continued statewide attempts at banning abortion as reasoning for Roe v. Wade to be federal law, The New York Times reported. The 1973 ruling from the United States Supreme Court gave someone the constitutional right to pick abortion until the point of a fetus’s viability, however state lawmakers and the Trump adminstriation have continued to challenge that precedent with expenditures that recommend near-total bans, bans at six or eight weeks gestation, or targeted restrictions on abortion providers (known as TRAP laws), which have significantly limited abortion access to several Residents of the
U.S.. Ostensibly, these moves are all being done in a task to challenge Roe at the Supreme Court level, where a conservative majority may determine to overturn it.


The candidate went on to pledge that if elected, she would make sure each person had “access to the complete span of reproductive healthcare services, and that includes birth control, plus it includes abortion. It includes everything.”