Again, the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., has tried and failed to equate abortion with suffrage. The annual march, held first in 2017 as a counter to former President Donald Trump’s inauguration, showed heightened tension a few days ahead of an even more tense Election Day. 

Abortion has been framed as a human right for some time now, including in the bulk of Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential platform, so there is no surprise at seeing it as the animating issue of the Women’s March. But for marchers to campaign, essentially, on abortion only weakens their platform of gender equality.