United States Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris says Donald Trump does not understand women when he talks about protecting them “whether they like it or not”.

Harris said ​​the former president does not understand women’s rights “to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies”.

“I think it’s 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.

Harris has made reproductive freedom a key part of her election campaign, with many of her rallies featuring stories of women who suffered or even died as a result of lack of access to therapeutic abortions because of a patchwork of state laws.

Trump appointed three of the justices to the US Supreme Court who formed the conservative majority that overturned federal abortion rights in June 2022.

‘I am going to protect them’

As the fallout continues to spread, Trump has been saying at public events he would “protect women” and make sure they would not be “thinking about abortion”, and he would protect them from “criminals”.

He repeated such comments at a rally on Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, telling supporters his aides keep telling him to stop using the phrase because it was inappropriate.

He said that he told his aides: “Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them.”

Harris has claimed it is part of a trend with Trump.

“This 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.

The back and forth was part of the intense sniping between Democrats and Republicans with five days to go before the November 5 election.

Thursday, on the ABC News show The View, billionaire Harris supporter Mark Cuban, told the hosts: “Donald Trump, you never see him around strong intelligent women, ever. It’s just that simple. They are intimidating to him.”

Cuban’s remark drew a quick response from Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt saying he had “insinuated female Trump supporters are weak and dumb”.

An issue Republicans struggle with

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 as a result of abortion restrictions.

Trump has given contradictory answers about his position on abortion, but in recent weeks, he has promised to veto a national abortion ban, after previously declining to do so.

The Harris campaign is focused on making reproductive rights a huge motivator for women to get out and vote, including inviting high-profile figures such as Beyonce and Michelle Obama to headline rallies to talk about reproductive freedom.

In the early voting that has already taken place, 1.2 million more women than men have cast their ballots across the seven battleground states, according to data from analytics firm TargetSmart.