During visit to abortion clinic, Harris says US is facing a ‘healthcare crisis’
Vice President Kamala Harris described the flood of laws restricting access to abortion as a “health care crisis” as she visited abortion providers and staff at a clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Thursday.
Ms. Harris’ visit to the Planned Parenthood clinic was believed to be the first official visit by a vice president to an abortion clinic. No presidents are known to have made such visits.
Speaking to reporters in the lobby of the clinic, which was open and treating patients, Ms. Harris attacked conservative “extremists” for passing laws restricting abortion, resulting in the denial of emergency care for pregnant women and the closure of clinics that provide reproductive health care. health care that goes beyond abortion.
“These attacks on individuals’ right to make decisions about their own bodies are outrageous and in many cases downright immoral,” she said. “How dare these elected leaders believe that they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interest. We must be a nation that trusts women.”
The very image of the nation’s second-largest leader walking into an abortion clinic provided a vivid illustration of how the politics surrounding abortion rights have changed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. There was a map of Planned Parenthood clinics in the lobby. in Minnesota and neighboring states. Minnesota had the most by far, with a few in Iowa. Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota were nearly barren – all have limited access to abortion since the overthrow of Roe.
For decades, many Democrats viewed positive support for abortion rights as a political risk, fearing that such a position would alienate more moderate voters who were uncomfortable with open discussion of the procedure. The party embraced cautious slogans such as “safe, legal and rare” and policies such as banning taxpayer funding of abortions.
But the fall of Roe turned that politics on its head and energized a new generation of voters, energized by their support for abortion rights. The issue has become one of Democrats’ biggest strengths, party strategists say. In campaign speeches, as he did in his State of the Union address, President Biden describes the issue of abortion rights as an issue of personal freedom and the right to make decisions about private health care.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has been polling voters about abortion for more than four decades, said she couldn’t remember a time when abortion rights were so motivating to their voters.
“It is the most important issue for Democrats at every level of office,” Ms. Lake said. “Everything from county commissioners to presidents are elected around this issue.”
The issue is on firmer ground for Democrats. Ms. Harris visited Minnesota a week after 19 percent of voters in the Democratic primary voted “unoccupied,” as many of them saw it as a protest against the government’s policies in Gaza.
After little discussion about abortion during Biden’s 2020 campaign, his strategists are embracing the issue. They have taken out ads featuring testimonials from women denied access to the proceedings in conservative states and attacked former President Donald J. Trump for appointing three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe.
Democrats’ efforts have been aided by a steady stream of lawsuits, legislation and court decisions in conservative states that restrict not only abortion but other aspects of reproductive health, including contraception and fertility treatments.
Tresa Undem, a pollster who tracks public opinion on abortion, said these actions have changed the way voters — especially women — view the government’s role in their reproductive health care.
Recent polls from KFF, a nonprofit organization focused on health policy, found that 86 percent of female voters of childbearing age believe decisions about abortions should be made by a woman, in consultation with her doctor. A large majority also want laws guaranteeing the national right to abortion, access to abortion for women facing pregnancy-related emergencies, and the right to travel to have an abortion.
“They are afraid of their own mortality,” Ms. Undem said. “And they don’t want politicians or the government to have any say in the circumstances and the reasons, the why and the when.”
Mr. Biden has pledged to restore federal abortion rights and preserve access to medication abortion, which faces new threats from a case set to be heard before the Supreme Court this month. These assurances represent a notable escalation for Mr. Biden, an observant Catholic who was caught for decades between his religious opposition to his party’s proceedings and policies.
But Mr. Biden has still expressed some discomfort with the procedure itself, often avoiding the word “abortion.”
It is Ms. Harris who has emerged as the government’s most forceful abortion rights advocate, touring the country to highlight the actions the government has taken to maintain access to abortion. She has taken a much more assertive approach than the president, holding meetings on the issue with hundreds of state lawmakers, meeting with abortion doctors and patients and speaking in plain language about the once-taboo issue.
“Please understand that when we talk about a clinic like this, it is absolutely about health care and reproductive health care. So everyone get ready for the language: womb,” she said outside the clinic in St. Paul. “Problems like fibroids. We can handle this.”
Nearly all of her stops have been in Democratic-run states that have become havens for abortion seekers as much of the South and Midwest have passed more restrictive laws.
On Thursday, at the St. Paul Health Center, Vandalia, where Ms. Harris spoke, about two dozen anti-abortion protesters stood on the street outside with signs that read “Planned Parenthood = Abortion” and “Abortion is not health care.”
A doctor at the clinic said the number of abortions had increased by 25 percent and the number of out-of-state patients had increased by 100 percent since Roe was struck down.
“Minnesota has become a bastion of access for abortion care,” said Dr. Sarah Traxler, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood North Central States. “Our new abortion landscape is difficult. It’s dangerous. And it puts my patients and caregivers at serious risk.”
White House officials say they have largely reached the limits of their power to protect abortion rights. Legislation codifying federal abortion rights has failed twice and has no chance of passage given the slim Democratic majority in the Senate and disagreements within the president’s own party over the scope of such a bill.
Administration officials have encouraged Democratic state lawmakers to take a proactive role on the issue. Last year, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed legislation enshrining the right to abortion into state law, an effort to ensure the procedure remains legal no matter who comes to power in the state.
The Society of Family Planning, a health research organization, found that the average number of abortions in the state has increased rose by about 36 percent in the year after the Supreme Court decision.
“What happened here in Minnesota with the reelection of the governor and the change in the state legislature has meant that these fundamental rights are intact and protected,” Ms. Harris said before leaving the clinic for an interview. Women for Biden-Harris Rally in St. Paul. “Elections are important.”
At the campaign rally later in the afternoon, Ms. Harris laid the blame for what happened after Roe on Mr. Trump, calling him “the architect of a health care crisis.”
The former president, she said, was “proud that women across our country are suffering, proud that doctors and nurses can be thrown in jail for providing care.”