HOUSTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Friday that she rallied in Texas to show that “real harm has been done, real suffering has been caused in our country” by the medical consequences of abortion restrictions, and she pushed the Blame squarely on Donald Trump.
Harris is teaming up with Beyoncé for a rally in the Republican state, but the message should resonate in the political battlegrounds, where the Democratic candidate hopes the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade will spur voters to turn out to support her to support aspirations for the presidency.
“Unfortunately, Texas’ elected leaders have made Texas ground zero in this fundamental fight for women’s freedom to make decisions about their own bodies,” Harris said Friday.
She will also be joined at the rally by women who nearly died from sepsis and other pregnancy complications because they were unable to receive proper medical care, including women who never planned to terminate their pregnancies.
Some of them have already campaigned for Harris, others have told their harrowing stories in campaign ads designed to show how the issue has evolved into something far bigger than the right to end an unwanted pregnancy.
Since abortion was restricted in Texas, the state’s infant mortality rate has increased, more babies have died from birth defects and maternal mortality has increased.
With the presidential election dead, Harris is betting that abortion rights are a key voter factor — including for Republican women, especially since Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right. He has been inconsistent about how he would approach the issue if voters return him to the White House.
Harris’ campaign has adopted Beyonce’s 2016 track “Freedom” as its anthem, and the message fits with the vice president’s emphasis on reproductive freedom. The singer’s planned performance on Friday adds a lot of star power to Harris’ state visit. She will be the latest celebrity to perform with or on behalf of Harris, including Lizzo, James Taylor, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Springsteen and Eminem. While in Texas, Harris will also record a podcast with host Brené Brown.
Trump is also traveling to Texas on Friday, where he will talk about immigration and record a podcast with host Joe Rogan.
There is evidence that abortion rights could encourage women to go to the polls, as was the case in the 2022 midterm elections. Voters in seven states, including some conservative ones, have either protected abortion rights or rejected attempts to restrict them in statewide votes over the past two years.
“Living in Texas, protecting the health and safety of women is incredibly important,” said Colette Clark, an Austin voter. She said electing Harris was the best way to prevent further abortion restrictions across the country.
Daniel Kardish, another Austin resident, didn’t know anyone who was personally affected by the restrictions but still sees them as a central issue in this election.
“I care deeply about women’s bodily autonomy,” he said.
Harris said this week that she thinks the issue is compelling enough to motivate even Republican women, adding: “For so many of us, our daughter will have fewer rights than her grandmother.”
“When the issue of a woman’s freedom to make decisions about her own body is on the ballot, the American people vote for freedom, regardless of the party with which they are registered,” Harris said.
Harris is unlikely to win Texas, but that’s not the point of her presence on Friday.
“Of every state in the country, Texas has been the home of harrowing stories of women, including women denied care, forced to leave the state, and mothers forced to leave the state,” said President Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, one Legal group behind many lawsuits against abortion restrictions. “It is one of the key places where this reality has been felt so devastatingly.”
Democrats warn that rights and freedoms will only be further weakened if Trump is elected. Republican lawmakers in states across the U.S., for example, oppose Democratic efforts to protect or expand access to birth control.
Democrats also hope Harris’ visit will give a boost to Rep. Colin Allred, who is likely trying to unseat Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred will appear at the rally with Harris.
When Roe was first overturned, Democrats initially focused on modern restrictions on access to abortion to end unwanted pregnancies. But the same medical procedures used in abortions are also used in the treatment of miscarriages.
And in 14 states with strict abortion bans, women are increasingly unable to receive medical care until their condition has become life-threatening. In some states, doctors can be prosecuted for providing medical care.
About six in 10 Americans believe their state should generally allow a person to have a legal abortion if they do not want to become pregnant for any reason, according to a July poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Trump has been inconsistent in his message to voters on abortion and reproductive rights. He has repeatedly shifted his stance, giving vague, contradictory and sometimes nonsensical answers to questions on an issue that has become a major tender point for Republicans in this year’s election.
Texas embodies the post-Roe landscape. The strict ban on abortion prohibits doctors from performing abortions as soon as cardiac activity is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks or sooner.
This means that women, including those who did not want to terminate the pregnancy, receive increasingly needy medical care. That’s partly because doctors can’t intervene unless a woman is experiencing a life-threatening condition or to prevent “significant impairment of major bodily functions.”
The state has also become a battleground for litigation. The U.S. Supreme Court voted in favor of the state ban just two weeks ago.
Complaints that pregnant women in medical distress are being turned away from emergency rooms in Texas and elsewhere have increased as hospitals wrestle with whether standard care could violate strict state laws against abortion.
Several Texas women have filed complaints against hospitals for failing to terminate their failed and unsafe pregnancies because of the state’s ban. In some cases, women lost reproductive organs.
Recently, Republicans have increasingly tried to shift the blame to doctors, accusing them of deliberately denying services to circumvent the bans and make a political point.
Perryman said that was gaslighting.
“Doctors are being put in a position where they face criminal liability, personal liability, jeopardy to their medical license and their ability to care for people – they are faced with an untenable situation,” she said.
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Long reported from Washington and Lathan from Austin, Texas.
