Politics

Here’s Where Kamala Harris Stands On Abortion

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• Sen. Kamala Harris has been praised by pro-abortion groups and promised to increase abortion access.
• “We cannot go back to the days before Roe v. Wade where people were dying from unsafe abortions,” Harris said in January. “Reproductive health is on the ballot in 2020.”
• “The scary thing about Kamala Harris is that we know exactly what she believes when it comes to abortion,” the president of Americans United for Life Catherine Glenn Foster said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, has been praised by pro-abortion groups and promised to increase abortion access.

The California Democrat, who the Planned Parenthood Action Fund called a “steadfast champion for reproductive rights and health care,” has made it clear that she would prioritize women’s “reproductive health” from the White House. (RELATED: ‘Most Pro-Abortion Presidential Ticket In American History’: Pro-Life Groups Condemn Biden VP Kamala Harris)

“We cannot go back to the days before Roe v. Wade where people were dying from unsafe abortions,” she tweeted in January. “Reproductive health is on the ballot in 2020.”

Abortion bans won’t end abortions; they will just end safe and legal abortions. #SOTU

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) February 5, 2020

Activists like Americans United for Life CEO Catherine Glenn Foster warn that Harris could present a greater threat to pro-life causes than Biden.

“We don’t know what Joe Biden really believes when it comes to abortion,” Foster said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “But the scary thing about Kamala Harris is that we know exactly what she believes when it comes to abortion.”

The California senator has a 100% voting record with the National Abortion Right’s Action League’s Congressional Record on Choice for every year that she has served in the Senate. The organization praised Biden for picking Harris as his running mate, pointing to her years-long support of abortion.

“She has cosponsored critical legislation to protect and advance reproductive freedom, including the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) to protect our right to access abortion care free from medically unnecessary restrictions and bans, the Global HER Act to expand access to reproductive healthcare internationally by permanently ending the global gag rule, and the EACH Woman Act to block racist bans on abortion coverage like the Hyde Amendment once and for all,” NARAL Pro-Choice America said in a Tuesday statement.

I am sick and tired of Republican politicians restricting women’s access to reproductive health care, especially abortion. We have got to build a coalition of Americans who will fight to ensure women get the care they need.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 14, 2019

As a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Harris promised to codify Roe v. Wade, require judicial nominees to support Roe v. Wade, repeal the Hyde Amendment, require private insurers to cover abortion and contraception, make abortion drugs and birth control available over the counter, ban abstinence-only sex ed, preserve funding for Planned Parenthood and much more, according to The New York Times.

Harris also said she would not consider a running mate who opposed abortion rights, according to the Times article. Her Medicare for All plan promised to provide comprehensive reproductive health care and to establish a list of states that would be banned from imposing pro-life laws without the approval of the Department of Justice, Vox reported.

“Medicare for All will cover all medically necessary services, including emergency room visits, doctor visits, vision, dental, hearing aids, mental health and substance use disorder treatment and comprehensive reproductive health care services,” Harris said in a July 29 explanation of her Medicare plans.

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Harris and Biden previously clashed over abortion during the July 2019 Democratic debates. Harris highlighted Biden’s flip on the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger.

“You made a decision for years to withhold resources to poor women to have access to reproductive health care, including women who were the victims of rape and incest,” Harris told Biden. “Do you now say that you have evolved and you regret that?”

“Why did it take you so long to change your position on the Hyde Amendment?” she added. “Why did it take so long until you were running for president to change your position on the Hyde Amendment?”

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Harris supported the United States Supreme Court’s decision against a Louisiana law in June. The law required abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion facility, ABC News reported.

Harris called the Supreme Court ruling “a huge victory for reproductive rights” in a tweet.

“Abortion is a fundamental issue of justice in America and we will never stop fighting for it,” she added.

When Harris evaluated Brian Buescher for a Nebraska district judge seat in 2018, the senator highlighted his association with the Catholic charity organization, the Knights of Columbus, noting the group’s opposition to abortion, the National Review reported.

“Since 1993, you have been a member of the Knights of Columbus, an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men,” Harris said in a written question. “In 2016, Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus, described abortion as ‘a legal regime that has resulted in more than 40 million deaths.’ Mr. Anderson later said ‘abortion is the killing of the innocent on a massive scale.'”

“Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization,” Harris asked Buescher. She also questioned whether Buescher was “aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when [he] joined the organization” as well as whether Buescher “ever, in any way, assisted with or contributed to advocacy against women’s reproductive rights.”

As a Catholic organization, the Knights of Columbus support official Catholic doctrine that states abortion is “a crime against human life” and that marriage should be between a man and a woman, according to the Catechism.