In a speech marking the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday condemned conservative justices for creating a “healthcare crisis in America.”
“How dare they,” Harris, the first female vice president, told a crowd gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
He also criticized abortion bans that have passed in several Republican-led states since Roe’s reversal. The politicians who create these laws “don’t even understand how a woman’s body really works,” Harris said, as she vowed that the Biden administration will continue to fight for a woman’s right to make her own decisions.
“This fight is not just about people in one particular state, these extremists plan to take their national agenda. And that agenda, by the way, goes far beyond reproductive rights. Many of these same people are attacking the right to vote, this impedes the teaching of American history.” she said
The event was one of several the White House has held this month to mark the anniversary of the high court’s decision, putting the spotlight on an issue that will likely dominate the 2024 election cycle.
On Friday, President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff participated in a political event with reproductive rights groups. Additionally, Biden signed an executive order intended to protect and expand access to contraception, which advocates feared Republicans would target next as they seek to impose more restrictions.
Three of the nation’s leading reproductive rights groups — EMILYs List, NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund — also endorsed the Biden-Harris 2024 presidential campaign on Friday.
And last week, the White House hosted events with Democratic lawmakers from 41 states to discuss state-level attacks on reproductive rights.
Harris’ speech in Charlotte comes exactly one year after the Supreme Court’s 5-4 conservative majority decided to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling guaranteeing the constitutional right to abortion. The court’s ruling last year proved to be one of the defining moments of the 2022 midterm elections, galvanizing key voting groups, especially women, in support of Democratic candidates.
Republicans in Congress and Republican presidential candidates have celebrated the 2022 anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling, while Democrats in Congress are scrambling to find ways to legislatively protect abortion rights.
House Democrats, for example, have been trying to drum up support for a discharge petition that would force a vote in the closely Republican-controlled chamber on a bill to protect an individual’s right to terminate to a pregnancy as well as abortion providers. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Friday they only need eight more members to sign the petition.
But with the prospect of protecting abortion services all but impossible on Capitol Hill, the Biden administration has been scrambling to find ways to safeguard reproductive health care services.
Abortion rights advocates are locked in a legal battle over the abortion drug mifepristone, which is part of a two-drug regimen to self-manage the termination of a pregnancy. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana recently heard arguments in the case, but the appeals process could take months.
Advocates have had some success blocking or delaying enforcement of restrictive laws in court. A judge ruled Thursday that Wyoming’s law to ban medication abortions would not go into effect in July as planned to allow a lawsuit to move forward.
Meanwhile, as Republicans continue to destroy people’s rights to end pregnancies, support for their efforts remains low. A new NBC News national poll found that about 6 in 10 US voters remain opposed to the Supreme Court’s decision, while 36% approve.
