In her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris’s favorite tactic was to emotionally manipulate women into voting for her. Her failed campaign spent over $1 billion on advertisements, many of which were about abortion rights.
For example, during Trump’s televised, all-female townhall, Harris aired an ad called “Monster” in which a young woman shares the story of getting an abortion after she was raped and impregnated at age 12. She expresses concern that other women and girls won’t have the choice she had, and the ad ends with her saying: “Donald Trump did this. He took away our freedom.” In addition to the litany of ads, the Harris campaign trained women around the country to share their abortion stories in public speeches—followed by appeals to vote for her.
Harris’s strategy failed. While abortion rights clearly played a certain role in the results, as shown by the eight-point lead that Harris had among women in swing states, ultimately the election was not decided by this question. Trump had emphasized that he would not support a nationwide abortion ban, and millions of men and women who support abortion rights opted to cast a no-confidence vote against the Democrats and their economic record. This is clear from the fact that over 2.6 million people voted both to approve state-wide pro-choice ballot measures and to reject Kamala Harris in favor of Trump.
Harris’s failed campaign spent over $1 billion on advertisements, many of which were about abortion rights. / Image: Gage Skidmore, Flickr
Abortion as a bargaining chip
The Democrats position themselves as the “pro-choice party.” But they have had fifty years to codify abortion rights. During ten of those years, they controlled both Congress and the presidency. Yet, they refused to make abortion completely legal. Why? To win elections. They need to be able to present the Republicans as anti-choice bogeymen, in hopes of blackmailing women into voting blue. Harris’s campaign was only an intensification of this decades-old strategy.
Harris was not the only candidate to use abortion rights as a bargaining chip. Because Trump appointed three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, many now see him as the killer of abortion rights. This was actually a weakness for Trump, and he knew that it could cost him the election.
That’s why Trump and many other Republicans broke fifty years of tradition. The 2024 Republican Party platform contained no language explicitly against abortion in general—it only opposed “late-term” abortion. In all other cases, it said states should decide for themselves—a point that Trump emphasized in public appearances. He also claimed to support birth control, IVF, and access to the abortion medication mifepristone. Perhaps most importantly, Trump loudly and repeatedly declared that he would veto a national abortion ban.
So Trump went from being pro-choice in the 1990s, to saying in 2016 that women should be punished for having abortions, to bragging in 2022 that the end of Roe v. Wade was “the biggest win for life in a generation,” back to a neutral “states’ rights” stance—all to win an election. Many other Republicans, like Florida Senator Rick Scott, used the same strategy.
Since the 1970s, Republicans have used abortion to assemble a solid voter base of conservative evangelical Christians. It remains to be seen whether the changes in the Republican Party platform will stick—many GOP politicians remain anti-abortion fanatics. There are still plenty of right-wing cranks like Tucker Carlson who blame climate catastrophes on “human sacrifice” (abortion) instead of the capitalists’ carbon emissions. Republicans in Congress could yet pressure Trump to approve a federal abortion ban, and he may flip-flop once again.
Breaking with 50 years of Republican tradition, Trump’s platform contained no language against abortion in general—it only opposed “late-term” abortion. / Image: Gage Skidmore, Flickr
Ballot measures for abortion rights
Trump’s about-face was not just about this presidential election—it is the result of a process that has been building up over time. For decades, in poll after poll, a majority of Americans have supported abortion rights. Yet, it is still not a legally recognized right in many states. This exposes bourgeois “democracy” for what it is: democracy for the capitalists and dictatorship for the rest of us. The rich will always be able to afford safe abortions, so they can use “pro-life” and “pro-choice” messaging to drive an artificial wedge between workers and pressure us to vote for one of the capitalist parties.
The overturn of Roe v. Wade set off a long-term buildup of frustration, which expressed itself in a wave of state ballot measures. These referendums gave many voters a chance to approve the right to abortion directly—without having to vote Democrat.
In 2022, Kansas and Kentucky—states that are supposed to be conservative strongholds—defeated anti-abortion amendments to their constitutions. Michigan—which went for Trump in 2016 and 2024—voted to include the right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution. In 2023, Ohio, another current Republican stronghold, declared making “one’s own reproductive decisions” a constitutional right.
This year, ten states—an unprecedented number—voted on the question of abortion. These were not liberal strongholds either: five of them were solidly for Trump, and two—Arizona and Nevada—were swing states. Trump and other Republicans could not ignore them.
In the end, a majority voted in favor of abortion rights in eight of these states. The defeat in Trump-supporting Nebraska was very close: 49% for abortion rights, 51% against. Only in South Dakota was there total rejection of the right to abortion. Notably, Missouri and Arizona both expanded abortion access to up to 24 weeks of gestation—Missouri previously had a blanket ban, and Arizona’s limit had been 15 weeks. In addition to expanding abortion access, voters in the “red state” of Missouri also voted for paid sick leave and a higher minimum wage.
Shamefully, Florida’s pro-choice amendment failed, even though 57% voted in favor. Working-class Floridans clearly want the right to abortion, but the amendment required 60% to pass. So much for bourgeois “democracy.”
We can only win abortion rights through militant class struggle. That begins with building a revolutionary alternative to Trump and the Democrats. / Image: RCA
How to fight for our rights
Despite the successful ballot measures, millions of ordinary women still suffer under anti-abortion laws—and matters may get worse.
So how can we fight for and win this basic right? Voting for Democrats is clearly not the answer, but ballot measures are no guarantee either. Trying to protect workers’ rights through the bourgeois legal system is always risky; it was built by and for the capitalists, not us. As long as capitalism exists, the ruling class can always find ways to take away our rights if they deem it necessary—just like they did with Roe v. Wade.
Under capitalism, at best, it’s only possible to win the legal right to abortion. But for working women to really have control over their bodies, the procedure must be truly accessible—free of charge, safe, available nearby, and no longer siphoned into small clinics, vulnerable to harassment. This requires nationalizing every part of the healthcare system under workers’ control, and only a workers’ government can implement this. Until we achieve real access, the legal right to abortion is just words on a piece of paper.
Furthermore, to really liberate women, we need robust parental leave, affordable childcare, restaurants, housing, and socialized domestic services.
The capitalists will never give us these things because it would threaten their profits—and they benefit from keeping us divided over it. We can only win these demands through militant class struggle. That begins with building a revolutionary alternative to Trump and the Democrats: a genuine communist party.