BBCThe 2024 presidential election is the first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which protected the nation’s abortion rights.
The gender divide has been striking in this election, with polls showing Kamala Harris with an edge among women and former President Donald Trump holding a similar lead among men.
The BBC spoke to female voters about how they consider gender issues and abortion when voting in the final days of the campaign.
Michelle works as a quality engineer in Arizona. The 38-year-old is a registered Republican but plans to vote for Kamala Harris.
I’m concerned about women’s rights and women’s health care. I’m not one to vote on an issue, but it’s a big issue. I work in the medical field and I was personally greatly affected by the overturning of Roe v Wade because I was unable to access many of the medications I needed. No one is sure about the legality… although they are used for other purposes.
The Republican Party’s whole position is smaller government and not letting the government make my personal decisions, so why are they trying to legislate what women can do with their bodies?
[A Harris presidency] which means everything my parents told me when I was little was true – that just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you’re limited.
This nurse practitioner from Texas voted for Trump in the last presidential election and plans to support him again.
[Trump] definitely said things he shouldn’t have said. I would have to shake my head at that, especially as a woman, but I have yet to hear anything that would change my mind about my vote.
I don’t vote for personality. I’m voting policy. I don’t need to marry that man. I don’t need to deal with him. I have to deal with his policies.
Regarding abortion, [Harris] does not give pregnancy parameters as to how late someone can have an abortion. That cannot be open-ended. I am a NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] nurse for 17 years… I care about women’s rights. I care about women. The mother is the first patient. However, to me it’s what bothers me that she doesn’t give an answer to that.
This Democrat from Illinois plans to vote for Harris on election day. She previously supported the Democratic ticket in 2020, voting for Joe Biden.
I’m certainly concerned about the direction of reproductive rights in parts of the country. I feel that Trump’s efforts to communicate that he understands why [reproductive rights] is an important issue for women that has failed miserably.
I think Harris innately understands the importance of just being a woman and a woman of color. Would I like her to flesh out her plans a bit more to potentially expand reproductive rights? Absolute. But Trump has set the bar so low that she could actually continue not to mention it and she would still do better.
[A Harris presidency] Just thinking about it makes me cry. I have a nine-year-old daughter and she is old enough to start having aspirations and start paying attention to the world around her.
This library assistant voted for Trump in 2020, but is currently undecided and is considering a “write-in” for a candidate – voting for someone who is not officially running.
This wasn’t my first rodeo and I achieved my life’s goal when I was able to take a look at the commercials they were running for two specific groups.
It’s great that we have Harris as a serious woman running for president and she’s been vice president and has some experience. But Trump, when he was in office, I wasn’t too upset with what he did.
I don’t mind having a female president, but some of Harris’s political theories and what I think are right are not appropriate.
Angela is a graduate student in Iowa. As a Democrat, she supported Biden in the last presidential election and plans to vote for Harris.
I really wanted this to be a celebratory moment as we elected a woman of color to our highest office, but unfortunately the election against Trump was so close and so disappointing. [Harris’s] The election campaign involves some issues that are so important to me, it’s hard to celebrate as much as I would like.
Clearly abortion is a major issue that needs to be addressed, but I’m not entirely satisfied with either candidate’s approach to addressing the issue.
I understand Harris has a policy where she wants to codify Roe v Wade, but I think women’s rights and issues go beyond abortion access. Trump is very vague on the issue of women’s rights, so it is difficult to impose any position on him.
This retired Republican plans to vote for Trump. She also supported the former president in 2020.
I think [Trump] is really the only possibility since I think Harris is clueless and incompetent. I think she will be a disaster for this country if we just listen to her mumbling and hiding. I just have a terrible feeling about her.
Actually, I am pro-choice within reason. It’s not a late abortion. I don’t agree with that. But I think Trump is really relegated [legislation] as for the states themselves, he was very sensitive.
Harris doesn’t have much to do so that’s her biggest attraction to women. In other words, she doesn’t have much substance, so she just keeps talking about the abortion issue.
The independent voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election and voted by mail this year in favor of Harris.
Women’s reproductive rights are huge for me as a woman, especially living in the state of Florida, where there is a ballot amendment that would guarantee the protection of abortion rights.
I really want to support a party that supports reproductive rights for women and not just women, but for everyone, because what’s to say it won’t spread elsewhere? It usually starts with women, but it keeps happening over and over again.
Our government is at least 50 years behind the times on many things – especially other countries around the world that are better represented. I have a niece whom I love very much. The truth is she can see [a female president]and if that was just a normal thing for her then it would be huge.
This independent voter from Georgia describes himself as a left-leaning moderate. Because of her faith and anti-abortion views, she did not support Harris or Trump this year.
I was actually planning on voting for Harris, but then she started emphasizing how abortion affects reproductive health… I’m Catholic. I am pro-life.
The problem I have is I don’t know how any Catholic can vote for someone who spews things like what we saw [from Trump] at Madison Square Garden recently. I take the command to welcome strangers and feed and clothe very seriously.
So, in that situation, I had no one to vote for.
The retired Texas resident voted for Biden in the last presidential election and cast his ballot early in favor of Harris.
I’m very scared. We can’t actually go back. It was very scary for me. I have more rights than my niece will have in the future and that is not right.
It’s worrying that it’s so close. [Trump] is a criminal on bail. I don’t understand the Republican party. They were law and order [party]supposedly, and now this.
I think a lot [of women] is coming out and saying, ‘Why are you telling us what to do with our bodies?’ Abortion is private and up to the doctor and the woman. That’s none of my business.
Ahead of election day, BBC Voter Voices is hearing from Americans across the country on the issues that matter to them.
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