WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest in an Associated Press series examining what’s motivating voters in battleground states looks at how state abortion bans that have transpired since 2022 will influence the way women vote in North Carolina.
Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, tensions over abortion have only intensified, setting the presidential election up as a referendum on fundamental rights for tens of millions of women.
Flanked by southern states where abortion is nearly outlawed, North Carolina has a more moderate 12-week ban in place after the Supreme Court overturned nationwide abortion rights. The state has also dealt with a deluge of women who are seeking abortions that they cannot get in states like Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Still, Democrats are betting that abortion will be the winning issue that motivates white women voters to cast a ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris, bucking the years of support that former President Donald Trump enjoyed from those voters. If Harris has any chance of winning the state’s 16 electoral votes, she’ll need to draw from the 60% of white women voters who backed Trump in the 2020 election, according to AP VoteCast data.