“We…will stop Donald Trump’s extreme abortion bans because we trust women to make decisions about their own bodies and not have their government tell them what to do,” Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic nominee, told a roaring crowd near Milwaukee on July 23rd. “When Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United States I will sign it.”

Abortion is the subject on which Ms Harris sounds both most fluent and most different from Joe Biden. Mr Biden is so queasy about the topic that he can barely say the word: he failed to do so in his last state-of-the-union address, despite it being scripted. Ms Harris, by contrast, this year became the first vice-president to visit an abortion clinic. Her record of protecting women’s rights could be an asset in mobilising voters. Although for most Americans abortion is not their deciding issue, it has become a priority for Democratic voters. In an election that could hinge on turnout, such mobilisation could be critical.