US election live updates: Harris campaign launches abortion-focused bus tour as polls show momentum against Trump | US elections 2024

Donald Trump continued his attempted pivot on reproductive rights yesterday while campaigning in Wisconsin alongside former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who recounted her experience with IVF. The Guardian’s Alice Herman was there, and has this report:

At a town hall event in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday night, Donald Trump and the former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, now a Trump campaign surrogate, attempted to pitch themselves to the crowd as supporters of reproductive rights.

Gabbard, who moderated the event after endorsing the former president earlier this week, opened the town hall with emotional remarks about her experience with in vitro fertilization. The comments came shortly after Trump said in an NBC interview that he would make the government or insurance companies pay for IVF if he is elected, although it is unclear how he would accomplish that or if he is serious about the proposal given the pivotal role he played in overturning Roe v Wade.

“We were not successful in trying to get pregnant. For us, IVF seemed to be the only option and the last resort,” said Gabbard, who described to a quiet audience the costly and at times painful fertility treatment process she said she underwent 10 years ago.

Following Gabbard’s comments on IVF, Trump reiterated his promise from earlier in the day.

“We wanna produce babies in this country, right?” he said.

By stating his support for IVF and claiming that he would leave abortion laws to the states if elected, Trump is hoping to retain the support of women who count reproductive rights as a top issue – but risks alienating his supporters on the religious right.

Reproductive rights has been a major vulnerability for Republicans nationwide ever since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade two years ago and allowed states to ban the procedure. As the president who appointed three of the justices who supported that ruling, Donald Trump has been no exception, and he’s lately tried to execute something of a pivot on the issue.

Politico reports that the former president has signaled support for abortion access in Washington DC, going against years of attempts by the GOP to use Congress’s unique oversight of the capital to restrict the procedure in its city limits.

And, yesterday, he told NBC News that he would support requiring the government or private insurers to pay for IVF for families. He also said that he would not back restrictions on the care – which Democrats have accused the GOP of wanting to do, after Alabama’s supreme court earlier this year handed down a ruling that cut off access.

Here’s more on what Trump said, from NBC:

“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said before adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

Asked to clarify whether the government would pay for IVF services or whether insurance companies would do so, Trump reiterated that one option would be to have insurance companies pay “under a mandate, yes.”

Abortion and IVF have been political liabilities for the GOP this year. Democrats have blasted Republicans over IVF in recent months, saying GOP-led restrictions on abortion could lead to restrictions on IVF, as well.

In a statement, Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, said that “Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide” and that “because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz yesterday sat for their first joint interview since launching their campaign, and outlined some of the policies they’d bring to the White House, if elected. Now, they’re looking to press the advantage over Donald Trump and JD Vance that polls continue to indicate they may have, particularly on issues of reproductive health. Their campaign this morning announced a bus tour through swing states that will focus on promoting her policies towards IVF access and abortion, and feature prominent surrogates including Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

We continue to see signs that Harris and Walz are posing a much stiffer challenge to Trump than Joe Biden did. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll published yesterday shows Harris with the advantage in all seven swing states it surveyed, even North Carolina, which hasn’t supported a Democrat since 2008. That said, it’s only one poll, and others have shown her in a weaker position with voters in these states, most notably Pennsylvania, which is viewed as perhaps the deciding state this election.

Here’s what else we’re watching today:

• Despite his role in the overturning of Roe v Wade and his party’s pursuit of abortion restrictions nationwide, Trump tried to remake himself into a supporter of reproductive rights at a rally yesterday.

• We will hear more from Trump today, who will campaign in Johnstown, Pennsylvania at 4.30pm ET, and speak at a conference of conservative group Moms for Liberty at 8pm.

• Harris is back in Washington DC, and has no public events scheduled today. Expect speculation to grow in the coming days over when she will sit for her next interview.