Abortion rights, a top issue in the 2024 election, sparked one of the longest and most heated exchanges of the night.
It’s an issue Democrats have used to galvanize voters, regularly framing Trump as a threat to women’s autonomy because of his role in appointing a conservative majority to the Supreme Court. The court later overturned Roe v Wade, the ruling that had protected abortion rights in the US for decades.
Walz cited the stories of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller, two women from Georgia whose deaths were connected to abortion restrictions in their home state.
Vance, meanwhile, said his opinion on the issue had changed. He previously supported some type of national restrictions on abortion, but said his position shifted when he saw the majority of Ohio voters supported access to abortion.
He also said his party had to do “so much better… at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us”.
