U.S. Vice President Harris visits women’s health clinic to stress importance of abortion rights

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited a clinic that provides abortion services in the Midwestern state of Minnesota on Thursday to show Democratic support for women’s reproductive rights.

Her office said it was the first time two of the nation’s top leaders had visited such a medical facility.

Abortion rights remain a fluid issue ahead of national elections in November in a country where the number of abortions regularly exceeds 80,000 per month, even since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nearly five-year-old ruling two years ago. Abortion rights remain a fluid issue. Says women have a constitutional right to surgery.

Although abortion is banned in 14 of the 50 states, the number of abortions in the United States has declined only slightly since the ruling, according to multiple studies. Instead, women seeking to terminate their pregnancies in states where abortion is illegal travel to states where abortion remains legal or obtain medications to terminate their pregnancies at home.

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, often boasted to his supporters that he appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court who were part of the 6-3 majority that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. sent one of the members and “for what has been done.”

Some Republican lawmakers have pushed for further restrictions on abortion, such as restrictions on medical abortion. Trump has yet to weigh in on specific proposals, aware that Democrats have won numerous elections and referendums supporting abortion rights since the Supreme Court ruling.

Against this backdrop, Harris has been the most outspoken Democrat in support of abortion rights, traveling to multiple states while campaigning for re-election led by President Joe Biden. She calls it her “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” journey.

“In this environment, these attacks on an individual’s right to make decisions about their entire body are outrageous and, in many cases, unethical,” Harris said at Planned Parenthood in St. Paul, Minnesota. “How dare elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what is in their best interests.”

Ahead of her visit, about two dozen protesters gathered outside, holding signs with slogans such as “Life is a human right,” “They kill babies here” and “The real war on women.” A large number of police and Secret Service personnel surrounded the building, awaiting the arrival of the vice president.

While Harris has been outspoken and unequivocal in her support of abortion rights, Biden, a devout Catholic, has been somewhat more restrained.

A week ago, Biden said during his State of the Union address before Congress and a national television audience that if voters gave him “a pro-choice Congress, I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the United States.” Landing again. “

He invited as one of his annual speakers Kate Cox, a Texas mother who was denied emergency abortion care and had to travel out of state to get one.

He did not utter the word abortion, although that was in the text he had prepared for that night.

Kellie Copeland, executive director of the pro-life group Ohio, told NBC News, “It’s great to see Kate Cox and her story being elevated and condemned for having to leave her state to get an abortion.

“What about not saying the word?” Copeland said of Biden. “I thought that meant it was taboo, but it’s not. This is health care that she needs. And it’s something that a lot of women, trans people and Healthcare that non-binary people have every right to receive.”