WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris says “everything is at stake” in November’s election when it comes to reproductive health rights, while the Biden team is placing increased emphasis on contrasting the positions of Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump on the issue ahead of this week’s debate.
Harris’ comments come as the campaign announced it will hold more than 50 events in swing states and beyond to mark the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Monday that struck down federal abortion rights. Biden and his allies are trying to remind voters that the landmark decision in 2022 was made by a Supreme Court that included three conservative justices nominated during Trump’s tenure in the White House.
“Every person, regardless of gender, should understand that when a freedom as fundamental as the right to decide what happens to your body can be taken away, you have to be aware of what other freedoms might be at stake,” Harris said in a joint MSNBC interview with Hadley Duvall, a Kentucky abortion rights activist who was raped by her stepfather as a child. Part of the interview aired Sunday.
The Biden team is convinced that abortion rights can be a galvanizing issue in what is expected to be a close general election.
Trump is taking credit for Dobbs among his conservative base, but has stopped compact of supporting a national abortion ban demanded by supporters of the religious right if he returns to the White House.
In April, Trump said he believed the issue should be left to the states. He later said in an interview that he would not sign a nationwide abortion ban if it were passed by Congress. He has declined to elaborate on his position on women’s access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
At a campaign rally on Saturday, Trump said his administration had done “something great” with Dobbs, but acknowledged that it was politically risky to continue to harp on the issue at this time.
“Every voter has to follow their heart and do the right thing, but we also have to be elected,” he said.
Biden has begun private preparations at Camp David for Thursday night’s debate in Atlanta. Trump is expected to hold meetings at his Florida estate this week as part of an informal preparation process.
Duvall, of Owensboro, Kentucky, first told her story publicly last fall in a campaign ad for her home state’s gubernatorial election, in which she addressed the consequences of abortion restrictions, particularly when there are no exceptions for rape or incest.
First Lady Jill Biden had planned a campaign rally with Duvall in Pittsburgh for Sunday evening. Harris will mark the anniversary of the Dobbs decision on Monday with campaign events in Arizona and Maryland. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, is traveling to Michigan on Monday.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) traveled to Wisconsin with Amanda Zurawski on behalf of the Biden campaign. The Texan was initially barred from having an abortion after being told she had a medical condition that meant her baby would not survive. Zurawski had to wait until she was diagnosed with life-threatening sepsis before she was allowed to have an abortion.
“If there is a woman of childbearing age, her life is on the line in this election,” Duvall said in the MSNBC interview. “And it doesn’t matter if you’ve never voted Democrat in your life. You need to get off your high horse, because we women don’t have much choice, and you can at least choose who you vote for.”
The Associated Press does not normally name victims of sexual violence, but 22-year-old Duvall wanted to remain anonymous and spoke publicly about her experience and its connection to the abortion debate.
