Abortion rights at the heart of the campaign

In 46 days, Americans will be asked to choose a new president. An election that could be decided between a female vote, rather favorable to Kamala Harris, and a male vote, more oriented towards Donald Trump.

Since 7am, he has been there, camped on the side of the road, stuffed animals at his feet. Like every day of the week, with his loudspeaker, Jason calls out to everyone who approaches the small building without a sign on the other side of the parking lot. “We are in front of a child sacrifice center in Atlanta… an abortion clinic”he explains.

Most people don’t know that abortion is the leading cause of death in the United States. Jason wants to stop women from having abortions, it’s his full-time job, he’s paid for it by his church and the anti-abortion movement. In the waiting room of the clinic, five women are waiting. But the journalists are escorted out, they try to remain discreet. The subject is too sensitive in Georgia where abortion is illegal after only six weeks of pregnancy, at a time when most women still don’t know they’re pregnant.

Across Atlanta, in Kamala Harris’ campaign office, volunteers prepare to meet the voters they’re trying to convince. They carefully note down the arguments of the doctor who explains the consequences of the restrictive law passed in 2019. “When the sperm meets the egg here, it enters its surface and injects its genetic content. That’s fertilization. According to Georgia law, that’s the moment when a human being is created. It becomes a person. And that can happen within an hour of ovulation. So when that happens, according to Georgia law, that single-celled organism has the same rights as you or me or anybody else.”

Volunteer Jen Falk remembers being shocked when the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling that protected abortion rights in 2022. “I didn’t want to believe itshe says. I thought that because of this, women might die. And that is precisely what happened.” Jen does reference to Amber Thurman, who died here two years ago from complications related to taking an abortion pill. An official commission has just ruled that her death, “avoidable”was due to a delay that was too long to carry out the curettage which could have saved his life but which the doctors delayed doing, for fear of prosecution.

The right to abortion has been severely restricted since a decision by the Supreme Court in 2022, a court remodeled by Donald Trump and the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, at a rally on Friday, September 20 in Georgia, pledged to defend it. A particularly combative Kamala Harris who recalled that since this decision by the Supreme Court, more than twenty states have restricted or banned the right to abortion.

“One in three women in America lives in a state where abortion is banned because of Donald Trump, she recalled. Donald Trump, who says he is proud of having appointed the conservative judges who allowed the turnaround of the highest American court. He boasts about it, he says he is proud of it ? Proud ? That women die ? Proud that doctors and nurses go to jail for providing care ? Proud that today’s young women have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers ? But how dare he? ?”the Democratic candidate complained to applause.

One in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump Abortion Ban.

And these hypocrites want to start talking about how this is in the best interest of women and children.

How dare they? pic.twitter.com/x3wRqShixJ

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 20, 2024

However, while the competition is extremely tight, particularly here in Georgia where the last presidential election was decided by 12,000 votes, abortion rights are a factor that could mobilize the undecided. We saw this during the midterm elections, which took place shortly after the Supreme Court invalidated the ruling that protected the right to abortion, votes that allowed the Democrats to achieve better results than expected. And this is also why Donald Trump is much less radical and readable in his remarks than he was on abortion. A difficult exercise nonetheless since he must at the same time manage his ultraconservative electorate. And Kamala Harris drives the point home: “If re-elected president, Donald Trump will go even further”assured the Democrat.