Harris' abortion rights bus tour aims for votes the big rallies don't reach
Source: Reuters
September 22, 2024 10:32 AM EDT Updated 10 hours ago
ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania, Sept 22 (Reuters) - An intimate crowd gathered around a blue bus and listened intently while Hadley Duvall, an abortion rights advocate and a supporter of Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, told how she was raped and impregnated by her stepfather at age 12.
Duvall ultimately had a miscarriage but said that under new abortion laws in her home state of Kentucky, she would have been forced to carry the pregnancy to term. Aleyda Garcia, 53, held a Harris campaign sign in Spanish and teared up. Her son Brandon Rodriguez, 18, wiped a drop from his mother's cheek. A first-time voter, he had yet to decide between Harris, a Democrat, and the Republican Donald Trump.
Duvall's story, part of the Harris campaign's "Reproductive Freedom" bus tour, made Garcia think of her granddaughters. "You never know when something can happen like that," Garcia said. "I want them to have a choice." Reuters followed the bus tour for two days in Pennsylvania. Most who showed up support Harris while a few, like Rodriguez, came to hear more about her. Voters like him make up the small group who could swing the Nov. 5 election.
Democrats see abortion rights as a popular issue for Harris to use against Trump, a Republican who while president appointed three Supreme Court justices who in 2022 helped overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from August 21-28 found a majority of voters, including 34% of Republicans, want the next president to protect or increase abortion access.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/harris-abortion-rights-bus-tour-aims-votes-big-rallies-dont-reach-2024-09-22/