The phenomenon had been anticipated for months. But we had to wait until Election Day, Tuesday, November 5, for it to materialize: American women heavily favored Kamala Harris, but not enough to ensure her victory. The various exit polls published in the afternoon by the American media presented the expected jaw effect: a 10-point advantage for the Democrat among women (around 54 against 44), but exactly the opposite proportion in favor of Donald Trump among men.
Kamala Harris’ bet was to expand the Democratic results since the Supreme Court’s decision, in June 2022, to end abortion as a federal right for all women. This decision, which shook the parameters of American politics, became a hemlock for Republicans at the polls, as evidenced by referendums and local elections, as well as the November 2022 midterm vote, which only offered a narrow majority to the party. Republicans. Therefore, Kamala Harris logically chose to make abortion a major focus of her campaign.
Eliminating a right that has existed for half a century is not trivial. Especially since this law led, in the process, to the implementation of repressive legislation in numerous States, 14 completely prohibiting the procedure, with very rare exceptions. This wave did not cause a decrease in the number of abortions performed, but it made women, as well as clinic staff and doctors, feel unsafe. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reference on this issue, more than 168,000 women crossed the borders of their state of residence in 2023 to terminate their pregnancy in another state. The bans and restrictions first affect the most vulnerable women, with few resources, and in particular black and Latina women.
Revenge of the “Angry American Man”
It is in this context that Kamala Harris placed her campaign under a slogan: “Freedom”freedom. It was no longer about calling ourselves “pro-choice,” but rather about defending women’s reproductive rights and health, in the name of equality and dignity. “Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to decide what she does with her own body? » This phrase could have been said by the vice president. It is from Melania Trump, the wife of the Republican candidate, in her book published a month before the elections. Obviously calculated, in this wife far from any political debate, it clearly expresses, implicitly, the shame of the billionaire, who has long identified his own vulnerability in this matter.
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