When Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, abortion rights advocates celebrated having a candidate who — unlike Joe Biden — knew how to talk about an issue that had been a winner since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Ten states also put statewide abortion-related measures on their ballots, sure to drive Democratic turnout in battleground states.
What ended up happening is that some abortion initiatives won out: Missouri became the first state to effectively overturn a near-total abortion ban, and New York passed an unprecedented Bill of Rights expansion. But measures to protect abortion — in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota — failed for the first time since Dobbs.