Speaking at a campaign event in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about abortion policy and the future of reproductive rights.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'm here as a conservative, pro-choice woman, and I don't think ten, five, or even maybe
00:09two years ago, we would have been talking about reproductive rights in elections.
00:15Because it was seen as too controversial, not a winning issue, and frankly, it seemed
00:21like settled law.
00:23Clearly, the landscape has shifted 180 degrees.
00:29How do you see this moment and how we got here?
00:34So first, I want to thank the two of you for your extraordinary courage and leadership
00:40on this issue.
00:41The voice that you each have carried and continue to carry is the voice of so many people who
00:48may not have the ability to do what the two of you have done so courageously, and I thank
00:54you for that.
00:55And we should applaud their courage.
00:56It takes a lot of courage to do what you two are doing, extraordinary courage.
01:04So just over two years ago, the highest court in our land, and I think about it, the court
01:10of Thurgood Marshall and RBG, took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people
01:21of America, from the women of America.
01:25And thereafter, in state after state, extremists proposed and passed laws that would punish
01:36health care providers.
01:37I mean, in a state like Texas, you know their law provides for life in prison for a doctor
01:44who administers care.
01:46Laws that would punish women, criminalize doctors, punish women.
01:50Laws that make no exception even for rape and incest.
01:54You know, many of you know I started my career as a prosecutor.
01:58You may not know one of the reasons why.
02:01When I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather.
02:08And I said to her, you have to come stay with us, you have to come live with us.
02:11I called my mother, my mother said, of course she does, and she did.
02:17So I decided I wanted to take on a career that was about protecting, in particular,
02:21women and children from violence.
02:23And the notion that these extremists would say to a survivor of such a crime of violence
02:29and a violation of someone's body, and to say to that survivor, and you have no right
02:36or authority to decide what happens to your body next, that's immoral.
02:44What has been happening in our state is that, you know, I've talked with so many women who
02:51have a similar story to what you have shared, women who want to have children and have gone
03:00through the horrible experience of a miscarriage and need care, need medical care, and denied,
03:07denied access to an emergency room because the health care providers there believed they
03:13would be exposed to a criminal case if they helped.
03:19The number of stories that I've heard about women and their partners, their spouses, their
03:25families silently suffering.
03:28Think about what's happening in our country, when you know that the majority of women who
03:33receive abortion care are mothers, okay?
03:37Will God help her if she's in a state with a ban?
03:41God help her if she has paid family leave or affordable child care.
03:49Think about, you know, I say to my staff and my team for years, I say, you know, in
03:54public policy, always ask how does this impact a real human being, right?
04:04So think about, think about what we're saying to her, that she's going to, God help her
04:09if she's got extra money to buy a plane ticket and for a hotel room, and then what does that
04:15mean, she has to go to the airport, stand in line at TSA, get on a plane sitting next
04:20to a perfect stranger, go to a city where she's never been to receive this care to only
04:26get back as soon as she can because she's got to take care of those kids.
04:29Her best friend's not with her because her best friend's taking care of the kids.
04:35Think about what we're putting people through.
04:39The other thing, though, that I have experienced in these two years as I travel around our
04:43country, and I've taken almost a hundred trips in connection with this issue, it's my sixth
04:49time since the Dobbs decision coming to Michigan, and one of the things I've found also are
04:56the stories of people who tell me about themselves, you know, I once felt very strongly about
05:02this, didn't believe in abortion, didn't believe in it, right?
05:10And they are saying, but I didn't expect this would happen.
05:15That was a household I grew up in.
05:17That was me and my mom.
05:20We're conservatives.
05:21We grew up in a conservative Catholic household in Texas, very Republican family.
05:25That was me, but we've evolved.
05:28Yeah, because I think that, first of all, on this issue, most people believe that one
05:35does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should
05:42not be telling her what to do with her body, right?
05:47If she chooses, she will talk with her priest or her pastor or her rabbi or her imam, but
05:56it shouldn't be the government telling her what to do, and I do believe the majority
06:02of us as Americans have empathy and don't will upon another suffering.
06:11I do believe that, and that's what I'm finding, to your point about people who felt strongly
06:17before the decision came down, and now they're seeing how it's playing out, and they don't
06:22intend that people would have that experience.