TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday accused “radical” Republicans of working to continue to push back against abortion rights in the months since Roe v. take care of reproductive health.
In her speech, on the 50th anniversary of Roe’s landmark Supreme Court ruling establishing the constitutional right to abortion, Harris said the push by some Republicans to establish the order A nationwide ban will worry people living in states with laws. more permissive.
“People live in fear of what might happen next,” Ms. Harris said.
Harris’ appearance in Florida, the nation’s third-most populous state, comes as Republicans, who have just won a majority in the Florida Legislature, have already won discuss changing state abortion ban period up to 12 weeks of pregnancy from 15. Earlier this month, after the Food and Drug Administration issued a regulation allowing the sale of abortion pills at retail pharmacies, Florida health officials warn pharmacists not to dispense medicine.
The vice president is the highest-ranking administration official to emerge on a day when thousands of activists across America prepare for the meeting, the parade for changes at the state level. There is no vote in the Senate to make the protections introduced by Roe into law, and with President Biden unable to grant those protections through executive action, administration officials hope Harris’s appearance in Florida can help maintain that anger has become a driving force voters in the midterm elections.
In her speech, at a nightlife venue called The Moon, Ms Harris took aim at “so-called leaders” in the state for enacting what she called an abortion ban. extremes and rules that target both the health care providers who perform the procedure and the pharmacist who dispenses the abortion pill.
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“Today, we are fighting back,” Ms Harris said.
She said Mr. Biden had signed a memorandum of understanding directing several agencies in the government, including the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Departments of Homeland Security, to assess how the federal government could assist. better assist health care providers and pharmacies in providing patients with mifepristone, a medicine used to end pregnancy. Officials in states including Florida and Texas have moved to limit the availability of the drug.
“Let us not get tired or discouraged,” Ms. Harris said. “Because we’re on the right side of history.”
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Ahead of the vice president’s speech, several activists, including Alexis McGill Johnson, executive director of Planned Parenthood, spoke to a crowd that had spent the morning protesting against the president. Republican governor of the state – “Hey, hey, ho-ho, Ron DeSantis had to go, the group was chanting at one point. In her speech, Ms. McGill Johnson called the vice president one of “the fiercest fighters for reproductive freedom.” Ms. Harris has established herself as leading voice of government on promoting abortion rights, a position she has pursued in recent months.
According to her office, Ms. Harris has hosted leaders from 38 states in events known as “convenings” and has brought together dozens of lawmakers from 18 states to discuss continuing. near abortion. Event in Tallahassee was attended by doctors who said they were limited in providing health care, university students worried about not having access to on-campus fertility care and young girls brought by their mother to meet the first female vice president to speak.
Jessica Lowe-Minor, 39, who attended the event with her husband, Rick and two daughters Charlotte, said: “It’s really sad that they are faced with a world where they will have less rights than me and my mother. . 4 and Madeline, 9. “We are doing everything we can to help them understand what is at stake.”
Miss Lowe-Minor then turned to Madeline, who was tying her shoelaces, and asked her if the government should be involved in health decisions. “No,” said the girl.
Kyla Hubbard, a 21-year-old student at nearby Florida A&M, attended the event in part because she and her friends are closely watching how the state government can continue to affect availability health organizations on campus and resources from groups including Planned Parenthood. Hubbard said it was important for the vice president to visit Tallahassee because so many Floridians were “not in favor” of accessing health care.
“We’re getting to know our bodies; we’re self-taught,” Ms. Hubbard said. “We need access to those kinds of resources, so getting that balance is very scary.”
At the back of the room, members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, alumnus of the vice president’s sorority, were sitting listening to Ms. Harris. Freddie Groomes-McLendon, a retired administrator at Florida State University, said she hopes that the speech will spark the kind of grassroots activism the White House wants to inspire.
“We have a very conservative governor,” said Groomes-McLendon, 88. “We hope we can do something about it.”
