GLAAD has documented the LGBTQ history of Vice President and nominee for President, Kamala Harris, including policies and efforts to expand access to abortion and improve maternal health outcomes. Harris’ full LGBTQ record is available on GLAAD’s Harris Accountability Tracker. Harris’ record as part of the Biden-Harris administration is also documented via the Biden Accountability Tracker. 

Abortion is a top issue for LGBTQ voters, according to GLAAD’s poll. Abortion is an LGBTQ issue. LGBTQ people can and do get pregnant and need reproductive health care. Many of the same states with abortion bans also have enacted bans on transgender health care.

Harris’ abortion record includes:

Promising to restore rights with law: “When Congress passes the law to restore reproductive freedoms, as President of the United States, I will sign it,” Harris said in her first appearance after becoming her party’s nominee for President.
Traveling and appearing in a multi-state “Fight for Our Freedoms” tour of college campuses, where she also connected reproductive freedom to LGBTQ equality. In Charleston, South Carolina, Harris said: “When we’re talking about the fight for our freedoms, like—just to break it down for a moment, it’s the freedom to love who you love openly. It is the freedom to make decisions about your own body. It is the freedom to have access to the ballot box. It is the freedom and the right to have access to opportunity. And—but fundamentally, a lot of this fight for freedoms is about the right that people should have the freedom to just be—to just be, and be free from hate, free from attack, free from bullying, free from harm.”
Supporting the Democratic National Committee party platform that restores the rights of Roe and secures national access to reproductive care, strengthens access to contraception, protects in vitro fertilization (IVF) care, and repeals the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds from being used in Medicaid and other federally administered health programs.
Visiting an abortion provider clinic in Minnesota, believed to be the first sitting Vice President to do so. “The reason I’m here is because this is a health care crisis,” Harris said. “Part of this health care crisis is the clinics like this that have had to shut down and what that has meant to leave no options with any reasonable geographic area for so many women who need this essential care.” Harris heard from staff members that providing reproductive care since Roe was overturned has become “difficult” and “dangerous.” Minnesota was the first state to secure access to abortion after the fall of Roe, and was among the first states to offer refuge for transgender patients and families fleeing states that ban abortion and trans health care. Both measures were signed into law by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who was later chosen as Harris’ nominee for Vice President of the U.S.
Announcing a comprehensive plan in June 2022 to combat deaths during pregnancy and childbirth, which disproportionately affects Black women, by “reducing disparities in maternal health outcomes and improving the overall experience of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum for all women in the United States.” Enacted: first-ever baseline federal health and safety standards for maternal emergency and obstetric services in more than 6,000 hospitals covering 98% of pregnant patients; a new “Birthing Friendly” hospital designation to more easily find high quality maternity care; investments to grow and diversify the perinatal workforce including non-traditional providers like doulas and lactation counselors; and infrastructure investments to remove lead pipes, known to raise the risk of miscarriage.
Expanding Medicaid postpartum coverage across 46 states, Washington D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands from two months to twelve months.
Speaking out about the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear whether abortion medication should be restricted, a decision based on lack of standing of the anti-LGBTQ plaintiffs, not whether the medication that’s been safely used for decades should be restricted: “We are looking at the fact that two-thirds of women of reproductive age in America live in a state with a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said, adding, “This ruling is not going to change that. This ruling is not going to change the fact that Trump’s allies have a plan that, if all else fails, aims to eliminate medication abortion through executive action.”
Responding to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow doctors “discretion” in whether to provide or deny emergency abortion care, tweeting: “Women all across America must have the freedom to access the care they need. Today’s Supreme Court order allows Idaho to deny women critical emergency abortion care. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, extremist elected officials throughout the nation have pushed dangerous abortion bans that deny women care, endanger their health and lives, and criminalize their doctors. The President and I stand with the majority of Americans who agree that every woman should be able to make decisions about her own body — not the government.”
As U.S. Senator and member of the Judiciary Committee leading Supreme Court justice confirmation hearings, asking nominee Brett Kavanaugh: “Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?” Kavanaugh answered: “I am not thinking of any right now.” Kavanaugh would go on to vote to overturn Roe, alongside two other Trump-nominated justices.
Elevating information about extreme abortion bans passed and enacted by states empowered by the overturning of Roe, including Iowa: “If extremist so-called leaders have their way, no woman in our nation will be safe from the government telling her what to do with her own body.”
Hosting the first federal Maternal Health Day of Action at the White House in 2022, noting the federal budget proposal includes a half billion dollars to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity rates, and new training for providers about implicit bias: “The more we can elevate this issue, I think the more we will accomplish that, which is to let women know that when it comes to their reproductive health, when it comes to their pregnancy and anything that they are experiencing in connection with that, they do not have to suffer,” Harris said.
As U.S. Senator, in 2019, proposing a requirement that states with a pattern of restricting abortion rights to seek preclearance from the Justice Department before enacting any new laws restricting abortion, a bill modeled after the Voting Rights Act that monitored historically limiting states from enacting new voting restrictions.
Cosponsoring the Maternal Care Act and the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that bans states from interfering with the ability of a health care provider to offer abortion services or interfering with the ability of a patient to access an abortion.
As U.S. Senator, leading introduction of Uterine Fibroid Research and Education Act, Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, Maternal CARE Act, and the first resolution recognizing Black Maternal Health Week.
Noting that Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, voted against access to IVF and contraception, and supports a national ban on abortion.

GLAAD’s Voter Poll shows:

94% of LGBTQ registered voters say they are highly motivated to vote this year.
82% of voters strongly agree that “Republicans should stop focusing on restricting women’s rights and banning medical care for transgender youth and instead focus on addressing inflation, job creation, and healthcare costs.”

GLAAD has documented Donald Trump’s record and proposals on abortion, here.