Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks at a rally for reproductive rights Sept. 15, 2025 (Capital-Star photo by John Cole)
PHILADELPHIA— With just over a month and a half until the presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is ramping up its focus on abortion access, with Gov. Josh Shapiro on hand to kick off a statewide “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour in Philadelphia on Sunday.
“When Donald Trump was in charge, we know he brought a whole lot more chaos to this country and a whole lot less freedom,” Shapiro said. He criticized the GOP nominee for president for appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, and bragging about it.
The November election will be the first time Americans will vote for a presidential candidate since Roe v. Wade was overturned. In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, but after the Dobbs decision overturned Roe, more than a dozen states have implemented restrictive abortion bans.
Shapiro also called out Trump’s Sunday post on Truth Social which read, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”.
The singer had endorsed Harris a few days earlier.
“Attacking Taylor Swift, especially in her home state of Pennsylvania, is not a smart move,” Shapiro said. Another “dumb move,” he added, was taking “freedoms away from millions of women” as a result of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe.
“Because let me tell you something,” Shapiro said. “Women are going to vote in this election.”
Sunday’s rally, which drew about 200 people to Independence Visitors Center in Old City, was the first stop on a bus tour that will visit Montgomery County, Allentown, Scranton, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh in the coming days. The reproductive rights bus tour has already traveled through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.
Shapiro also touted his record on abortion rights, pointing to his administration’s support of over-the-counter birth control pills, and ending the state’s contract with “Real Alternatives,” anti-abortion centers.
Shapiro said in July that his administration wouldn’t defend in court a state law that prohibits state Medicaid funding from being used for abortions.
“Every step of the way, we have made clear to our opponents in the legislature, do not send me those bills that undermine freedom in Pennsylvania because they will be met with a swift veto from my office,” he said.
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Shapiro said that states have “been on the front lines” on the issue of abortion and said that western Pennsylvania has seen a “dramatic increase” of those seeking abortion there, with women traveling from neighboring West Virginia and Ohio, where there are more restrictive abortion laws in effect.
However, Shapiro said that “there is only so much we can do here if Donald Trump is given the keys to the White House,” accusing Trump and running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) of wanting to sign a national abortion ban.
Shapiro was interviewed by CNN on Sunday morning following an interview with Vance, where the Ohio senator was pressed about unverified claims about Haitian immigrants. Shapiro said that Vance “should be ashamed of himself.”
Trump has previously said he wouldn’t sign a national abortion ban, but during a debate with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday, he didn’t answer whether he would veto such a ban. Vance declined to say during a Sunday TV appearance whether Trump would veto a ban or not.
Hadley Duvall, 22, a sexual assault survivor and reproductive rights advocate from Kentucky spoke at Sunday’s rally, relaying her personal story. She was sexually assaulted by her stepfather when she was 12 years old and sought an abortion. Duvall has appeared in campaign ads for Democrats this cycle highlighting her story, and was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention. She said Sunday that too much was at stake to sit out the upcoming election.
Hadley Duvall (photo by Lucy Valeski)
“Donald Trump sees no wrong in what he did with overturning Roe,” she said. The former president “doesn’t care” about the women affected by states imposing abortion bans following the Dobbs decision, she said.
“Trump brags about overturning Roe v. Wade. He says he’s proudly responsible for each and every abortion ban across the country and he’s called it a beautiful thing,” Duvall said.
“I’ll ask him again and again, what is so beautiful about making a 12 year old carry the child of their parent,” she added. “To tell a girl who has already been robbed of her childhood that you are now taking away her future away, that’s unimaginable, but it’s happening.”
Trump said during Tuesday’s debate that he supported abortion exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-4th District) called the Harris-Walz ticket “the strongest on reproductive freedom that we’ve ever seen in this country.”
“We are ready to turn the page on Mr. Trump’s chaos and indecency,” Dean added. “We are ready to turn the page on his mandate of misogyny.”
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-4th District) speaks at a reproductive rights rally in Philadelphia Sept. 15, 2024 (Capital-Star photo by John Cole)
Dean also boosted her fellow Democrats serving in the state’s congressional delegation and mentioned congressional candidates Ashley Ehasz and Janelle Stelson. Ehasz, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1st District), and Stelson, who is seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-10th District), have both made abortion rights central to their campaigns.
Shapiro told the Capital-Star after his remarks that abortion is front of mind for Pennsylvania voters.
“Go back and look at the elections since Donald Trump was President, in nearly every race, reproductive freedom played a central role,” Shapiro said. “Whether it’s my race for governor, Senator Fetterman’s race for U.S. Senate, the Supreme Court race here in Pennsylvania, the issue of reproductive freedom was right in the middle of all of those campaigns, and in every single race, the candidates standing up for reproductive freedom won their race.”
“This is an issue on people’s minds,” he added. “It’s an issue people vote on, and it’s an issue that Donald Trump is in the exact wrong place.”
Shapiro added that reproductive rights aren’t a partisan issue in his view; he noted that former GOP Congressman Jim Greenwood, who is supporting Harris for president, was also at Sunday’s rally.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll showed that Harris leads Trump by 14 points on who voters trust when it comes to the issue of abortion. Trump’s strongest issue on the poll was immigration, where he leads Harris by 10 points.
Trump has accused the Harris campaign of being out of touch on the issue of abortion and has said abortion policy should be left up to the states.
Pennsylvania remains a toss-up between Harris and Trump according to the major national ratings outlets, including Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball. Its 19 electoral votes make it a key prize for the winner of the election.
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