With this condensed primer, MedPage Today looks at the health policy records of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Abortion

Harris' Stance:

• Harris supported abortion rights throughout her Senate career; preserving those rights is expected to be a central part of her campaign.
• She is believed to be the first vice president ever to visit an abortion clinic -- a Planned Parenthood facility in Minnesota in March.
• Two months earlier, in Wisconsin, she kicked off her "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour, highlighting the harms of extreme abortion bans.
• In July, Harris pledged that if Congress passed a law to preserve the right to abortion nationwide, she would sign it.
• Abortion-rights groups were quick to endorse Harris after Biden ended his campaign; anti-abortion groups seem alarmed by her unflinching commitment to the issue.

Trump's Stance:

• Trump has called himself "the most pro-life president" in American history.
• He appointed three of the six Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
• Earlier this year, Trump expressed support for a 15-week ban; since then, however, he has stated that abortion is a states' rights issue.
• During the presidential debate in June, Trump falsely accused Democrats of supporting abortions "even after birth."
• The 2024 GOP Platform excludes a definitive call for a national abortion ban for the first time in 40 years, instead stating that the party opposes late-term abortions, and supports prenatal care and access to birth control and in vitro fertilization.
• The platform also supports the 14th Amendment, which protects the rights of "any person" to "due process"; some conservatives have interpreted the words "any person" to include the "unborn."

Why It Matters:

• According to polling by the Pew Research Center, 63% of adults in the U.S. support abortion in all or most cases. Furthermore, in at least seven different states where abortion has been on the ballot (including conservative states like Kansas, Montana, and Kentucky), voters have come down on the side of abortion rights.

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