PHOENIX (AP) 鈥 Kamala Harris said Thursday that Donald Trump鈥檚 comment that he would protect women whether they 鈥渓ike it or not鈥 shows that the Republican presidential nominee does not understand women鈥檚 rights 鈥渢o make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies."
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 offensive to everybody, by the way," Harris said before she set out to spend the day campaigning in the Western battleground states of Arizona and Nevada.
She followed up those remarks at her rally in Phoenix: 鈥淗e simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what鈥檚 in their own best interests and make decisions accordingly. But we trust women."
The comments by Trump come as he has struggled to connect with women voters and as Harris courts women in both parties with a message centered on freedom. She's making the pitch that women should be free to make their own decisions about their bodies and that if Trump is elected, more restrictions will follow.
Trump appointed three of the justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who formed the conservative majority that overturned federal abortion rights. , he has taken to claiming at public events and in social media posts that and ensure they wouldn鈥檛 be 鈥渢hinking about abortion.鈥
At a rally Wednesday evening near Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump told his supporters that aides had urged him to stop using the phrase because it was 鈥渋nappropriate.鈥
Then he added a new bit to the protector line. He said he told his aides: 鈥淲ell, I鈥檓 going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.鈥
Harris said the remark was part of a pattern of troubling statements by Trump.
鈥淭his is just the latest on a long series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency," she said.
Harris tied Trump鈥檚 comments to his approach to reproductive rights, but Trump generally speaks more of protecting women from criminals, terrorists and foreign adversaries, in keeping with the bleak picture he paints of a country in decline.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to protect them from migrants coming in. I鈥檓 going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles and lots of other things,鈥 Trump said during a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
He seemed to tie in abortion when he first used the 鈥減rotector鈥 language in a Truth Social post and at a rally in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 20. He assured the women who would be 鈥減rotected鈥 that they "will no longer be thinking about abortion.鈥
The dispute showed signs Thursday of further entrenching each candidate's supporters.
It was not only women who described Trump's remarks as offensive. At the Harris rally in Phoenix, Edison Kinlicheenie, 50, said he sees Trump more as a threat than a protector, noting that the former president has a .
鈥淚 have a wife and a daughter, so I wouldn鈥檛 let no predator like that come around" them, Kinlicheenie said.
At a Trump rally in Albuquerque, Sarah Pyle, 41, cited the opposition to allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's events to portray Trump as someone who helps women.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want my girls to grow up in a world like this,鈥 the Albuquerque mother said, referring to the controversy. 鈥淲e fought for women鈥檚 rights for so long, and now we鈥檙e giving them back to men. It makes no sense.鈥
More broadly, Trump and Republicans have struggled with how to talk about abortion rights, particularly as women around the nation are grappling with obtaining proper medical care because of abortion restrictions that have had implications far beyond the ability to end an unwanted pregnancy.
Trump about his position on abortion, at some points saying that women should be punished for having abortions and showcasing the justices he appointed. During his successful 2016 campaign, he told voters that if he were elected, he would appoint justices to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and said he was 鈥減ro-life.鈥
But in recent weeks he's promised to veto a national abortion ban, after repeatedly refusing to make such a pledge. He's said the states should regulate care and said some laws were 鈥渢oo tough.鈥
Since 2022, the patchwork of state laws on abortion has created uneven medical care. . Others have bled or became critically ill from sepsis as doctors in states with strict abortion bans send pregnant women away until they are sick enough to warrant medical care. That includes women who never intended to end pregnancies. Both infant and maternal mortality has risen.
Harris鈥 campaign has highlighted Trump鈥檚 statements around women. In one campaign ad, a woman stands in front of a mirror looking at a large scar on her abdomen, as audio plays of Trump鈥檚 comments about protecting women.
Harris hopes abortion will be a strong motivator for women at the ballot box.
In early voting so far, 1.2 million more women than men have voted across the seven battleground states, according to data from analytics firm TargetSmart.
That doesn鈥檛 necessarily translate into Democratic gains. But in the 2020 presidential election, there was a 9 percentage point difference between men and women in support for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, according to , a survey of more than 110,000 voters.
The Democratic ticket was supported by 55% of women and 46% of men. That was essentially unchanged from the 2018 midterms, when VoteCast found a 10-point gender gap, with 58% of women and 48% of men backing Democrats in congressional races.
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Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque and Gabriel Sandoval and J.J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
