Vice President Kamala Harris will take her abortion rights tour to California on Monday, raising concerns among Democrats across the country that a federal abortion ban could be enacted if Republicans take control of Congress on Election Day. The problem has become more serious in left-leaning states.
At an event at San Jose's Mexican Heritage Plaza, Harris praised her state for having the strongest abortion access protections in the nation, but remained “cautious” to California voters. He called on the issue to be taken seriously in November's parliamentary elections.
“Don't get too comfortable,” Harris says. also traveled Prior to the election, she held rallies for reproductive rights in Virginia and Wisconsin. “Let's understand, none of us have the luxury of sitting around and thinking, 'Thank God I'm in California.'”
The vice president's visit to the liberal Bay Area comes as Democrats pursue the issue in a campaign to flip some of the state's Republican-held districts to gain a House majority. It was conducted.and some potential districtsCalifornia is considered critical to Democratic Party goals.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has credited and praised the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, but he has stopped short of supporting a nationwide abortion ban. not present. Abortion rights advocates don't trust Trump and worry that a Republican-controlled House risks losing more reproductive health protections, including access to contraception.
On Monday, Harris portrayed access to abortion as a personal freedom that is just the tip of the iceberg and warned that Republicans could target LGBTQ+ people and voting rights if given the power. She sought to break through deep divisions on the issue based on religious beliefs, highlighting policies in red states that do not allow exceptions for abortion in cases of rape or incest.
“You don't have to abandon your faith or your deeply held beliefs to agree that the government shouldn't tell you what to do with her body,” Harris said to applause. “We simply agree that the government should not be dictating what to do with her body,” he called for a majority in parliament. It is not the government's right to ban reproductive medicine.
Harris was joined at Monday's event by Democratic California Sens. Alex Padilla and LaFonza Butler, as well as U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, as Democrats seek to retain the White House and gain control of Congress. It was a show of force amid a focus on abortion rights.
Becerra, who was scheduled to meet with obstetricians and gynecologists and medical students at the University of California, San Francisco after Monday's event, said abortion rights would be restored across the country if Democrats regain the House majority and President Biden is re-elected. He said he could.
“All I know is that we all have to be in this together,” Becerra said. “There's nothing left in my pocket.”
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff also attended Monday's event, which was repeatedly interrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Before being led out of the building, demonstrators shouted that Harris was “participating in genocide.” Her supporters tried to drown them out, chanting “four more years.”
Harris and Biden, who are running for a second term, have positioned the future of abortion as a fundamental freedom that will be contested in the election.
California voters in 2022 approved a measure that enshrines reproductive rights in the state constitution. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has since signed legislation solidifying the state as a “safe haven” for doctors and patients.
California law prohibits law enforcement from cooperating with out-of-state abortion investigations. California is also moving to expand the types of providers who can perform abortions and open training to out-of-state doctors who live under “hostile” laws.
Abortion rights advocates worry that if the House remains in the Republican majority, more health care protections are at risk of being lost. nearly 20 states restricting access to abortion or banning it altogether;
Last week, California Family Planning Affiliates. “Burn the book” The bill targets 12 congressional candidates, including Rep. John Duarte (R-Modesto) and Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford), for their voting records on abortion bills.
“The future of abortion, including in California, will be largely determined over the next 12 months,” Sue Dunlap, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, said in an interview with the Times.
Dunlap said he is concerned about voter fatigue on the issue because California has long protected abortion rights.
“If we don’t win California, we won’t get there,” Dunlap said. “We don't live in a country or a world where California itself exists. We have to take these threats seriously.”
