The 2024 presidential election will be the first since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which protected the nation’s right to abortion.

The gender gap has been prominent in this election, with polls showing Kamala Harris with an advantage among women, while former President Donald Trump enjoys a similar lead among men.

The BBC has spoken to female voters about how they think about gender and abortion as they vote in the final days of the campaign.

Michelle works as a quality engineer in Arizona. The 38-year-old is a registered Republican but plans to vote for Kamala Harris.

I am concerned about women’s rights and women’s health care. I’m not a one-issue voter, but that is a big problem. I work in the medical field and I was very personally affected by the fall of Roe v Wade because I couldn’t get access to many of the medications I needed. No one was sure what the legalities were…even though they are used for other things.

The whole Republican position is smaller government and don’t let the government make my personal decisions, so why are they trying to legislate what a woman can do with her body?

(A Harris presidency) would mean that all the things my parents told me when I was younger were true — that just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you’re limited.

This Texas nurse voted for Trump in the last presidential election and plans to support him again.

(Trump) definitely said things he probably shouldn’t have said. I would have to shake my finger at that, especially as a woman, but I haven’t heard anything yet that would change my mind about my vote.

I don’t vote on personality. I vote policy. I don’t have to marry the man. I don’t have to deal with him. I have to deal with his policies.

Regarding abortion, (Harris) does not provide a pregnancy parameter of what time someone can get an abortion. That cannot be open-ended. I was a nurse in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for 17 years. I care about women’s rights. I care about women. The mother is the first patient. However, the turn-off for me is that she doesn’t want to answer that.

This Illinois Democrat plans to vote for Harris on Election Day. She previously supported the Democratic ticket in 2020 and voted for Joe Biden.

I’m definitely concerned about the direction reproductive rights are going in parts of the country. I believe that Trump’s attempts to convey that he understands why (reproductive rights) are an important issue for women have fallen woefully short.

I think Harris has an innate understanding of the importance of just being a woman and a woman of color. Would I like her to explain her plans in more detail to potentially expand reproductive rights? Absolute. But Trump has set the bar so low that she couldn’t really say anything about it and she would still do better.

(A Harris presidency) brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. I have a nine-year-old daughter and she is old enough to start nurturing ambitions and paying attention to the world around her.

This library assistant voted for Trump in 2020, but now remains undecided and is considering “writing in” a candidate – casting a vote for someone who is not officially a candidate.

This isn’t my first rodeo and I’m at the point in my life where I can look past the advertising they make to two specific groups.

It’s great that Harris, as a woman, is seriously running for president, that she has been vice president and has some experience. But when Trump was in power, I wasn’t that angry about what he did.

I wouldn’t mind having a female president, but certain political doctrines of Harris and what I think is right do not match.

Angela is a graduate student at Iowa. As a Democrat, she supported Biden in the last presidential election and plans to vote for Harris.

I would love for this to be a moment of celebration as we elect a woman of color to our highest office, but unfortunately given how close the election is against Trump and how disappointing (Harris’s) campaign has been on some of the issues that matter For me it was difficult to be as festive as I would like.

Obviously abortion is a huge problem that needs to be addressed, but I’m not necessarily happy, I should say, with the approach of either candidate in addressing the problem.

I understand Harris has a policy of wanting to codify Roe v Wade, but I think women’s rights and issues extend beyond just access to abortion. Trump is very soft on the issue of women’s rights, so it’s hard to pin him down on any position.

This retired Republican who plans to vote for Trump. She also endorsed the former president in 2020.

I think (Trump) is really the only option because I think Harris is just clueless and incompetent. I think she would be a disaster for this country if all she did was listen to her mumbling and evasion. I just get a terrible feeling about her.

I’m actually pro-choice, within reason. No late-term abortion. I don’t agree with that. But I think Trump is wise by really delegating the legislation to the states themselves.

Harris doesn’t have much to run on, so that’s her big selling point with women. In other words, she doesn’t have much substance, so she just keeps going on about the abortion issue.

This independent voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election and voted by mail in support of Harris this year.

Reproductive rights for women are extremely important to me as a woman, especially living in the state of Florida, where there is an amendment on the ballot guaranteeing the protection of abortion rights.

I really want to support a party that is going to support reproductive rights for women, and not just for women, but for everyone. Because what means that it won’t spread elsewhere? It usually starts in women, but it goes on and on.

Our government is at least 50 years behind the times on many issues – especially other countries in the world that have better representation. I have a niece who I love very much. The fact that she could see (a female president), and that that would be normal for her, will be huge.

This independent voter from Georgia describes himself as a left-wing moderate. Due to her faith and anti-abortion views, she is not supporting Harris or Trump this year.

I actually wanted to vote for Harris, but then she started going into more detail about how abortion affects reproductive health… I’m Catholic. I am pro-life.

The problem I ran into is that I don’t know how a Catholic can vote for someone who spouts things like we recently saw in Madison Square Garden (from Trump). I take the command to welcome and feed and clothe the stranger very seriously.

So under those circumstances, I don’t have anyone to vote for.

This retired Texas resident voted for Biden in the last presidential election and voted early for Harris.

I get so scared. We can’t really go back anymore. It’s very scary for me. I had more rights than my granddaughter will have in her future and that is not right.

It’s so disturbing that it’s so close. (Trump) is a felon out on bail. I don’t understand the Republicans. They used to be supposedly the law and order (party), and now it is this.

I think a lot of women come out and say, ‘Why are you telling us what to do with our bodies?’ Abortion is a personal thing and it is a matter between the doctor and the woman. It’s none of my business.

In the run-up to Election Day, BBC Voter Voices hears from Americans across the country about what matters to them.

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