Vice President Kamala Harris did what no U.S. vice president, or even president, had ever done when she visited a Planned Parenthood clinic. The trip Thursday to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area came as part of her nationwide Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour.
“It is a powerful moment for her to lead on this issue,” said Alencia Johnson, a Democratic strategist and former Planned Parenthood staffer. As the first woman, first Black woman, and first Southeast Asian-American to serve as vice president, Harris is “prepared for such a time as this.”
Johnson applauded the Biden-Harris administration’s governmentwide efforts to combat the nearly two dozen abortion bans enacted across the country after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. She told theGrio she hopes that Harris’ clinic visit “shifts” the way that the majority of Americans view abortion care and “reduces the stigma.”
While visiting the St. Paul Health Center in the Twin Cities, Harris described the state of reproductive care and abortion access as a “health crisis.” The vice president noted that many American women are “silently suffering” after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022.
Harris said that during her ongoing reproductive freedoms tour, she has heard women and providers express grave concerns about the future of health care and the repercussions of the abortion bans that 21 states have enacted. Those consequences include women enduring miscarriages and a fear of providers being criminalized.
Clinics like the Planned Parenthood site in Minnesota, noted the vice president, are critically needed.
“Please do understand that when we talk about a clinic such as this, it is absolutely about health care and reproductive health care,” she told reporters after touring the facility. Harris added, “So everyone get ready for the language: Uterus. That part of the body needs a lot of medical care from time…
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