What a Kamala Harris Presidency Would Mean For Women

Everything's coming up Kamala. Ever since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him, the momentum has been building for the assumed Democratic nominee. The #KHive, coconut-pilled, brat energy online has been staggering, much like the vibrancy and enthusiasm at Harris's first 2024 presidential rally.

All this is to say, Democrats are hyped. And that's especially true for Black women, says Laurie Bertram Roberts, the founder of the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund. Bertram Roberts was one of 44,000 Black women and people of color to hop on a Zoom call Sunday night, aiming to get Harris elected.

Following many Dems' largely hopeless sentiments after the first presidential debate, Bertram Roberts says the juxtaposition is stark. It's a political vibe shift. "I'm almost surprised by how excited people are getting," they say. "My friend groups are all talking about it, and on Facebook, I'll scroll and it's just Kamala everywhere."

It makes sense that so many people are excited, especially women. Harris would be not only the first woman president, but also the first woman of color. She has a history of speaking up about issues that especially impact women and people who can get pregnant. Here's what her candidacy could mean for them.

Biden promised repeatedly that, if re-elected, he'd restore Roe v. Wade-era abortion protections, after the landmark ruling that had legalized abortion across the US was overturned in 2022. Harris will likely continue that same fight, given that she has a strong record of advocating for reproductive rights.

Ever since Roe fell, "Harris has been the administration's main messenger when it comes to fighting for abortion rights and has spoken about the issue in more assertive terms than any presidential candidate in history," says Lisa Lerer, a New York Times national political correspondent and co-author of "The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America." "What we've seen is that Harris is a far more comfortable and skilled messenger when it comes to talking about abortion rights than Biden. She was the first presidential candidate to visit an abortion clinic, which she did during a stop in Minnesota earlier this year. And she's driven the issue from the White House, conducting a series of high-profile meetings with state legislators, activists, and physicians."

As Bertram Roberts notes, this is a 180 from how Biden spoke about abortion. Although his policies were in line with what Harris would likely do if elected, the Catholic president had a hard time discussing the issue. "At the debate, he got handed, on a silver platter, an opportunity to talk about abortion rights — and he just whiffed," Bertram Roberts says.

Laurel Elder, PhD, a professor of political science at Hartwick College who's researched women in politics and policies that impact parenthood and reproductive health, also points to the fact that Biden historically didn't use the word "abortion" much (though he did so eventually). He spoke about it publicly so infrequently that people on the internet were keeping a count of how many times he said abortion.

As for what Harris specifically would do about the state of abortion access in the role — especially now that 21 states have banned or restricted abortion nationwide — it may not be so different from what we've experienced under the Biden-Harris administration. Democrats have already tried to pass legislation restoring abortion rights nationally but haven't been able to do so because of the lack of support in the House and Senate. "There's no magic bullet to bring back Roe," Lerer adds. "Restoring federal abortion rights requires winning broad support in the Senate, which will be impossible if Democrats lose control of the chamber."

While it's still unclear if Harris would implement different policies than Biden would have in a second term, Lerer says "we can likely expect her to talk about the issue more forcefully and place it more directly at the center of her administration."

And that matters. "You can't move forward a conversation that you don't have," Bertram Roberts says. "Talking about it and having an actual plan helps because it gives people a vision for what could be, versus what is."

Still, Bertram Roberts hopes that if elected, Harris might change the conversation entirely, going beyond "bringing back Roe," which they say was so easily undercut. "I'd really like her to say: 'Enough with the bringing back Roe — it was the floor, not the ceiling.' I'm interested to see how she talks about real ways to make abortion rights a reality again for people."

In the elections since Roe fell, voters have already shown their support for abortion rights at the polls — in 2022, there was an expected "red wave" of Republican wins that never came, and many people believe that was due to people coming to the polls with abortion rights in mind, says Ally Boguhn, communications director at Reproductive Freedom For All. She and Dr. Elder believe a Harris ticket could energize voters on the issue even more. And if they come out for Harris, that means they're also coming out to vote for other down-ballot Democrats.

"Abortion was already a central issue in this presidential race," Lerer says. "Already, Harris has talked about the topic more forcefully than any presidential candidate in history. And conservatives see an opportunity to rally their base around opposition to her agenda. With Harris on the top of the ticket, we can expect the issue to command even more attention."

Harris has long drawn attention to Black maternal health and maternal mortality in general, at a time when rates are shockingly high by any standard, especially among Black women. In 2022, there were 22.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, which is double or triple the rates of similar "high-income" countries. Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Colorado have estimated that these maternal death rates will rise as more abortion restrictions are put into place.

In the past, Harris's stance on health care in general has been framed as somewhere between moderate and progressive Democrats — so not quite Bernie Sanders, but she is a staunch supporter of expanding programs like the Affordable Care Act. While in the Senate, she introduced the Maternal CARE Act and the Black Maternal Health Omnibus Act, which would have provided significant additional resources to help with the crisis — including investing in everything from health care to housing to nutrition, all factors that can impact maternal health, and providing extra support for moms with mental health conditions and veterans.

"She's done the work on figuring out: why are Black women dying in childbirth and what can we do?" Bertram Roberts says of Harris. "She's worked on legislation on that before, even though it didn't get passed. She helped craft it. During her presidential run, she had a policy platform piece about Black maternal health and she was the only one. She was the first one to have something to say on that, and I expect that to continue from her — I'm hopeful."

Affordable childcare is a major concern for voters in the upcoming election, and while Biden failed to highlight the administration's plans in the presidential debate, he pledged to cut childcare costs and increase the childcare tax credit. Since announcing her candidacy, Harris has already promised to pass policies for paid family leave and government-funded child care — two provisions that were previously dropped from Biden's Inflation Reduction Act.

If Harris wins, beyond what it would mean for pregnant people, it could also potentially help issues that impact parents in general, Dr. Elder says: "Her positions don't seem so different than Joe Biden's in terms of providing affordable childcare and trying for paid family leave."

Dr. Elder says we can likely expect Harris to speak about "stereotypical women's issues" like childcare, families, women's health care, and reproductive rights. "Even if she doesn't talk about these issues more — though I think probably she will talk about them more than Biden would have — I think they're gonna get more attention because she's a woman and because people still, rightly or not, associate a certain set of issues with women."

She adds: "Her candidacy is changing what this election is going to be about."

No matter how you spin it, Harris's candidacy and probable nomination are making history for women and women of color. The candidate now has the opportunity to not only defeat Trump and change the tide even more so, and, Dr. Elder believes she can change what it means to be a leader in general.

"The precedence of presidents is still so masculinized," Dr. Elder says. "When people think of the presidents, they reportedly think of a lot of traits that are historically associated with masculinity — assertiveness and strongness," she says. "This makes it challenging for a woman to navigate this terrain — but, it also gives us an opportunity to change our conceptions of what power is."

Bertram Roberts believes that she's already shown how she can be a strong leader.

"She's very good at breaking down arguments — before there was Katie Porter, there was Kamala Harris — there were constant clips of her on the Senate floor questioning people like Brett Kavanaugh," Bertram Roberts says. "She's not scared of people, or of making hard arguments. And we need that right now."

Molly Longman is a freelance journalist who loves to tell stories at the intersection of health and politics.