DES MOINES \u2014 Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday that a lawsuit seeking to overturn federal approval of a widely used abortion pill amounted to an attack on \u201cour public health system as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
During her first trip to Iowa as vice president, Ms. Harris portrayed Republican attempts to impose a nationwide ban on abortion as\u00a0immoral and extreme.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf politicians start using the court to undo doctors\u2019 decisions, imagine where that can lead,\u201d Ms. Harris said as a judge in Texas considered whether he would issue a preliminary injunction that could take the pill, mifepristone, off the market.<\/p>\n
Ms. Harris has taken a lead role on abortion as\u00a0President Biden prepares to announce an expected run for re-election. Without the votes in Congress to enshrine abortion protections into law, the White House hopes Ms. Harris can help sustain the sort of anger that motivated Democratic voters during the midterm elections.<\/p>\n
In her appearance Thursday at Grand View University, Ms. Harris framed the abortion issue as part of a broader struggle for health care and privacy, a strategy aimed at galvanizing\u00a0the broadest coalition of voters.<\/p>\n
The race begins. <\/strong>Four years after a historically large number of candidates ran for president, the field for the 2024 campaign\u00a0is starting out small and is likely to be headlined by the same two men who ran last time: President Biden and Donald Trump. Here\u2019s who has entered the race so far, and who else might run:<\/span><\/p>\n Donald Trump. <\/strong>The former president is running to retake the office he lost in 2020. Though somewhat diminished in influence\u00a0within the Republican Party \u2014 and facing several legal investigations\u00a0\u2014 he retains a large and committed base of supporters, and he could be aided in the primary by multiple challengers splitting a limited anti-Trump vote.<\/span><\/p>\n Nikki Haley. <\/strong>The former governor of South Carolina and U.N. ambassador under Trump has presented herself as a member of \u201ca new generation of leadership\u201d\u00a0and emphasized her life experience as a daughter of Indian immigrants. She was long seen as a rising G.O.P. star but her allure in the party has declined\u00a0amid her on-again, off-again embrace of Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n Vivek Ramaswamy. <\/strong>The multimillionaire entrepreneur and author describes himself as \u201canti-woke\u201d and is known in right-wing circles for opposing corporate efforts to advance political, social and environmental causes. He has never held elected office and does not have the name recognition of most other G.O.P. contenders.<\/span><\/p>\n President Biden. <\/strong>While Biden has not formally declared his candidacy for a second term, and there has been much hand-wringing among Democrats\u00a0over whether he should seek re-election given\u00a0his age, he is widely expected to run. If he does, Biden\u2019s strategy\u00a0is to frame the race as a contest between a seasoned leader and a conspiracy-minded opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n Marianne Williamson. <\/strong>The self-help author and former spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey is the first Democrat to formally enter the race. Kicking off her second presidential campaign, Williamson called Biden a \u201cweak choice\u201d and said the party shouldn\u2019t fear a primary. Few in Democratic politics are taking her entry into the race seriously.<\/span><\/p>\n Others who are likely to run. <\/strong>Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina\u00a0and Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire\u00a0are\u00a0seen as weighing Republican bids for the White House.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis is not only about reproductive health,\u201d Ms. Harris said, adding that overturning F.D.A. approval for abortion medication could set a dangerous precedent, potentially affecting\u00a0the availability of other medications.<\/p>\n The last-minute trip to Iowa, planned by the vice president\u2019s team only in the past few days, is\u00a0part of a push by Ms. Harris to get out into the country more to overcome an impression from allies and critics alike that she has not forged a definitive role in the administration.<\/p>\n Top Republicans have flocked to Iowa in recent weeks in anticipation of the 2024 Iowa caucuses, including former President Donald J. Trump; former Vice President Mike Pence; Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador; Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.<\/p>\n Democrats\u00a0have overhauled their primary calendar, replacing Iowa with South Carolina as the party\u2019s first nominating contest. But the rush of Republicans to Iowa presented an\u00a0opportunity for Ms. Harris to call attention to restrictions that could be imposed by Republican-led legislatures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to show the difference that while Republicans are taking health care rights away from them, we in the Democratic Party are saying that is not acceptable,\u201d said Elizabeth Naftali, a deputy finance chair of the Democratic National Committee.<\/p>\n Ms. Naftali said\u00a0that\u00a0Democrats could not allow a \u201csteamroll by Republicans\u201d just because the primary calendar had changed.<\/p>\n Most abortions are now banned in more than a dozen states following the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year. While Iowa has not banned abortion, it is one of many states the administration fears could soon enact more severe abortion restrictions.<\/p>\n Last year, the Iowa Supreme Court found that there was no right to an abortion under the state\u2019s constitution. A ban on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy has been blocked by a state judge since 2019 but Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, has appealed the decision to the higher court. The state currently bans abortion after 20 weeks.<\/p>\n Most Iowans \u2014 61 percent \u2014 believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a Des Moines Register\/Mediacom poll last fall. Thirty-three percent say it should be illegal in most or all cases, and 6 percent are not sure.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have just seen a lot of panic and fear among patients who are worried,\u201d said\u00a0Mazie Stilwell, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa.<\/p>\n White House officials acknowledged that there was only so much that they could do to protect abortion access without Congress, but many abortion advocates are calling for policies that would protect both medical officials providing abortions and those seeking them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I know feels frustrating for me and many organizers on the ground is we keep having meetings but there\u2019s not any action,\u201d said Renee Bracey Sherman, the founder and executive director of the reproductive rights advocacy group We Testify.<\/p>\n No major policy announcements came on Thursday. But\u00a0Ms. Harris described those pushing for abortion restrictions as \u201cextremist so-called leaders who purport and profess to hail themselves as a beacon of freedom and opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Stefanie Brown James, a co-founder of the Collective PAC, an organization dedicated to electing African American officials, said such blunt messaging would be imperative for both Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden in the months ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the event Kamala Harris continues to be his second in command, it\u2019s important for her now to be out having conversations as much as it is for him to be,\u201d Ms. James said. \u201cThis issue is not going away anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n