Vice President Kamala Harris will not answer the question of whether she believes in any restrictions on abortion after fetal viability.
CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell interviewed Harris and asked her multiple times to articulate her position on abortion restrictions. Each time, Harris deflected and said she supports restoring Roe v. Wade and blamed former president Donald Trump for red-state abortion bans.
“I support Roe v. Wade being put back into law by Congress, and to restore the fundamental right of women to make decisions about their own body. It is that basic,” Harris said when asked if she supports abortion restrictions after viability.
“But you know there were, there are restrictions — with Roe v. Wade there were restrictions after viability,” O’Donnell followed up.
“We would not be debating this if Donald Trump had not hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade,” Harris replied.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, sending abortion legalization back to the states. Trump-appointed justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett were part of the six-justice majority that voted 6–3 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to restore the ability of state legislatures to regulate abortion.
Harris continued to blame Trump for state-level abortion bans and falsely claimed that women are dying because of red-state policies.
“So then, why not say what restrictions you would support as part of that?” O’Donnell asked again.
“I’ve told you: Let’s put back in place Roe v. Wade,” Harris repeated, not answering O’Donnell’s question.
Harris also mentioned the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy blueprint and its proposals to restrict abortion. Trump has repeatedly disavowed Project 2025 and rejected the possibility of further restricting abortion pills.
“The former president said that’s not true, he would veto [it],” O’Donnell asserted.
“He says everything — come on, are we really taking his word for it?” Harris shot back.
CBS aired portions of O’Donnell’s interview on Sunday morning and spent time with Harris at her rally on Friday in Houston, Texas. The Harris campaign brought out Beyoncé for the rally and teased a performance that did not come to fruition, disappointing the attendees.
Abortion is a top issue this election cycle, and Democrats are seeking to capitalize on it in competitive races nationwide. Democrats and pro-abortion activists have constantly hammered their Republican opponents for supporting limitations on abortion in order to protect unborn life.
To limit those attacks, Trump has taken a moderate position on abortion and criticized six-week abortion bans. In a post on Truth Social, he even promised to protect “reproductive rights,” a common euphemism for greater access to abortion. Pro-lifers have criticized Trump’s abortion stance and the Republican Party’s 2024 platform for reflecting Trump’s professed views on the issue.
Last year, pro-abortion activists successfully won ballot measures in red states designed to protect abortion from stringent restrictions. The ballot campaigns won through a combination of freedom-centric messaging, prolific outside funding, and well-organized grassroots organizing.