Where Kamala Harris’ VP options stand on abortion and religious liberty

National Catholic Register, Jul 26, 2024 / 16:45 pm

Kamala Harris is the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president, bringing with her a long track record of promoting abortion and curtailing religious liberties.

But where do her potential vice presidential picks stand on these critical issues?

The dearth of national-level Democrats open to even modest restrictions of abortion and robust protections for religious liberties — a byproduct of the party’s strong shift to the left over the past decade — means that Harris will likely end up with a running mate who shares her views on the issues.

Here is a breakdown of the abortion and religious liberty views of eight VP contenders, along with what they could bring to the Democratic ticket.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, Arizona 

Kelly, 60, offers Harris a chance to have a veteran on the ticket from a battleground state Biden narrowly won in 2020, after Trump won it in 2016. 

The former U.S. Navy pilot and astronaut could be portrayed as a centrist pick since he has criticized the Biden administration for not welcoming more oil and natural gas production and for not securing the country’s border with Mexico.

On abortion, though, Kelly is in lock step with his party’s positions. 

Kelly, who says he grew up Catholic, supports codifying Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide for more than 49 years, until it was overturned by the court’s 2022 Dobbs decision.

On religious freedom, the Arizona senator made a point of highlighting the inclusion of protections for religious groups and individuals in his statement celebrating the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act in 2022. Kelly’s statement also noted that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had backed the bill, which enshrined the right to same-sex marriage into federal law.

The U.S. bishops, however, had opposed the legislation, calling the religious liberty guarantees “insufficient.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania 

Shapiro, 51, is a popular governor in a pivotal swing state, making him an attractive possibility on Harris’ ticket. He beat out a Trump-backed candidate in 2022 by nearly 15 points to become Pennsylvania’s top executive after serving six years as the Keystone State’s attorney general. 

Shapiro has also cited his Jewish faith as an inspiration for his political involvement, which some believe could help the Harris campaign appeal to religious voters.

But religious voters, especially Catholics, might be less excited about his position on abortion. As governor, Shapiro has taken steps not only to expand access to abortion but also to limit alternatives. He ended a 30-year Pennsylvania program that funded pregnancy resource centers and instead launched a website to connect residents with abortion services. 

Earlier this month, Shapiro said his administration wouldn’t defend a state law that prohibits Medicaid fundings from being used on abortion after the law was challenged in court. 

As Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro sued the Trump administration for giving broad religious exemptions from a contraception mandate, a move that religious liberty experts feared could affect groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor.

In 2018, he also released a grand jury report of more than 1,000 cases of alleged clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania since 1940, which was described by a former New York Times columnist as “grossly misleading, irresponsible, inaccurate, and unjust.”

Gov. Roy Cooper, North Carolina

Cooper is the second-term Democratic governor of a swing state that leans Republican and went for Trump in 2016 and 2020. 

Cooper, 67, is a member of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., and has previously taught religious education and served as a deacon. In 2023, he received the Faith Active in Public Life Award from a North Carolina council of Protestant denominations and congregations.

In 2019, Cooper vetoed a bill called the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Act, which sought to require doctors to save the life of a baby born alive after an attempted abortion. Cooper called the bill “an unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients” and said it “would criminalize doctors and other health care providers for a practice that simply does not exist.”

In May 2023, Cooper vetoed a bill banning most abortions after 12 weeks, which the Republican-controlled state Legislature subsequently enacted by overriding his veto. 

In May 2020, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Cooper limited church services to 10 people, a measure ultimately barred by a federal judge who said the move “appears to trust citizens to perform nonreligious activities indoors (such as shopping or working or selling merchandize) but does not trust them to do the same when they worship together indoors.” 

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Earlier in his tenure, the governor was accused by social conservatives of infringing upon the religious liberties of North Carolinans after he signed a 2017 executive order expanding nondiscrimination protections to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.”

Gov. Andy Beshear, Kentucky 

Beshear, a second-term Democratic governor in a solidly Republican state, would offer Harris a seasoned politician who is used to making his messaging sound moderate. 

At 46, the former corporate lawyer and son of a former governor of Kentucky is considered a rising star in the party.

While he is a pro-abortion governor in a pro-life state, Beshear aims for a moderate tone on the issue, offering a different approach from that of the national Democratic Party. 

“I’ve been very clear that I support Roe v. Wade, but I also support reasonable restrictions, especially on late-term procedures,” Beshear told a local television station in 2019.

In April 2020, during the coronavirus shutdowns, Beshear ordered Kentucky state police to take down license plate numbers outside Maryville Baptist Church in Louisville, which held a service despite the governor’s order banning it. 

However, three years later the practicing member of the Disciples of Christ signed a religious liberty bill into law. The new legislation prohibits the government from restricting religious organizations more severely than “essential” businesses and organizations and provides a legal route for religious groups “to sue the government if discriminated against.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan 

Like Shapiro, Whitmer is a popular governor from a key battleground state. She won a second term as Michigan’s governor in 2022 by nearly 11 points.

The 52-year-old’s proven record of sparring with Trump and his allies could be an asset on the campaign trail, though most analysts think Harris is more likely to opt for a male running mate to balance the ticket.

But Harris could pick Whitmer if she wants to make the election all about abortion. 

The mother of two has shared her story of being raped as a college student to make the case for abortion exceptions for pregnancies resulting from abuse. After the fall of Roe, she helped repeal a law on the books that banned abortions in Michigan and followed that by signing legislation in 2023 that undid a slew of abortion regulations, including a ban on partial-birth abortions. 

On religious liberty, Whitmer supported an amendment that added sexual orientation to Michigan’s nondiscrimination laws. The bill did not include religious liberty protections called for by Catholics and other religious groups. 

The governor also signed off on a 2024 ban of “any intervention that attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” which some Catholic counselors said would prevent them from counseling children struggling with their gender identity in a way consistent with their faith.

Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Department of Transportation

As a 2020 contender for the Democrats’ presidential nomination, the 42-year-old Buttigieg already has some national recognition. 

The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would bring a dose of Midwest likability to Harris’ ticket and has already demonstrated the kind of talking points he’d employ against GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance. 

As Biden’s secretary of transportation, abortion hasn’t exactly been a top issue for the Democrat over the past four years. 

But during his 2020 run, Buttigieg made it clear that he supports legal abortion, and he also called for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which limits federal funding for abortion. And as “Mayor Pete,” the then-local politician vetoed a city council decision to allow a crisis pregnancy center to open next door to an abortion facility.

The Episcopalian may have been given a fellowship at Notre Dame, but his conception of religious liberty is “minimalistic,” according to The Washington Post’s Michael Gerson. Buttigieg makes “no provision for religious institutions such as colleges to admit or hire according to their traditional religious standards,” Gerson wrote.

Buttigieg, who is in a civil marriage with a man and has twin children via adoption, has criticized those who appeal to religious liberty protections, claiming that their approach makes “it lawful to harm people so long as you remember to use your religion as an excuse.” 

Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota 

Walz as Harris’ running mate wouldn’t likely make a difference in more-blue-than-purple Minnesota, but the 60-year-old, two-term governor would bring executive experience to the Democrats’ ticket. 

Additionally, Walz spent over a decade as the U.S. representative of a more conservative district in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, showing some capacity to appeal to moderates. 

As governor of Minnesota, Walz has aimed to turn the state into a “refuge” for abortion. In 2023 he signed legislation that would make it easier for out-of-staters to get abortions in Minnesota and codified a right to abortion in the state earlier in the year. 

Walz has already said that abortion will play a “major role” in this November’s presidential election and said voters will have the choice “to continue on making sure that women have bodily autonomy, or to turn that clock back.” 

A Lutheran, Walz approved a bill this year adding religious exemptions to Minnesota’s nondiscrimination statutes, which the Minnesota Catholic Conference and other religious groups said was needed to ensure that faith-based organizations, churches, and schools could act on their beliefs when addressing gender-identity issues. 

However, in 2023 Walz signed legislation that prevented high school students from attending classes at religious colleges for high school credit because these colleges require a statement of faith from all students. Parents and religious colleges have sued the state, and the case is still pending. 

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois

Pritzker, 59, is a second-term governor of a solidly Democratic state who would bring serious money to a presidential ticket. A member of the family that founded the Hyatt Corporation, he has a net worth of $3.5 billion and spent $171.5 million of his own money in his successful 2018 campaign to become Illinois’ top executive.

In a party that values access to abortion, Pritzker might boast of having the best credentials of anyone on most VP short lists.

He has approved new legislation repealing both the state’s requirement of parental notification for minors seeking abortion and its ban on partial birth abortions. In the latter case, the new statute allows abortion until viability, and then after that if a “health care professional” determines “the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the patient.” 

In 2023, Prtitzker signed a bill banning “deceptive practices” by pro-life crisis pregnancy centers but it was blocked by a federal court after the Thomas More Society sued claiming the law is illegal because it sought to unconstitutionally restrict free speech.

Beyond Illinois, Pritzker founded a political fundraising organization primarily to stump for access to abortion nationwide called Think Big America. He referred to opponents of abortion as “far right” and “extremists” in a YouTube video promoting the organization.

The Illinois governor, who was raised a Reform Jew, caught fire from religious liberty groups in 2020 after limiting religious services to no more than 10 participants as a COVID-19 related measure. The Thomas More Society called it a “stomp on the religious liberty of the people of Illinois.” Following a slew of lawsuits, Pritzker changed the mandates to “guidelines.”

This article was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA's sister news partner, on July 25, 2024, and has been adapted by CNA.