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Julia Conley, Common Dreams
Following repeated calls by reproductive justice groups in recent months for the Biden administration to more forcefully fight for abortion rights and against the stigmatization of care, Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday made history by visiting an abortion clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Harris is the first vice president to make such an appearance, and a U.S. president has yet to publicly visit an abortion clinic while in office.
The vice president toured the facility, Planned Parenthood St. Paul, before speaking to the press about what she referred to as the “true leadership” of the healthcare providers and other staffers of the clinic.
“The work that happens here is about providing assistance to women who do not live in the state of Minnesota because sadly, this state exists in a neighborhood where laws have been passed to deny people reproductive healthcare,” Harris said. “In this environment, these attacks against an individual’s right to make decisions about their own body are outrageous and, in many instances, just plain old immoral.”
“How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need?” the vice president added. “To tell women what’s in their best interest? We have to be a nation that trusts women.”
Huge. Kamala Harris becomes the first ever VP (or President) to visit an abortion clinic—as Republicans continue to criminalize reproductive rights.
“It is only right and fair that people have access to the health care they need.” pic.twitter.com/BexUIXtCVW
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) March 14, 2024
Two states that border Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, ban abortion care in nearly all circumstances.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court, which is dominated by a right-wing majority, overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, 21 states have banned abortion or imposed restrictions barring pregnant people from obtaining care earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe for nearly 50 years.
Former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has expressed support for a nationwide 16-week abortion ban. Harris and Democratic President Joe Biden are seeking reelection in November.
The Public Religion Research Institute found in 2022 that 64% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in “most or all cases.”
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey released last week found that two-thirds of the public, including 86% of Democrats and 67% of Independents, supported a federal law guaranteeing the right to abortion. Fifty-eight percent of Americans said they opposed a 16-week abortion ban.
Harris also met with a woman this week in Wisconsin—where there’s an ongoing legal battle over an 1849 state law—and learned about her experience being denied abortion care.
Reproductive Freedom for All thanked the vice president for her “commitment to protecting abortion providers and patients.”
