Kamala Harris’s Omission of Declaration of Independence’s Right to Life Was Refreshingly Honest

Vice President Kamala Harris not-so-subtly omitted the Declaration of Independence’s assertion of a right to life in a speech lamenting the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in Tallahassee, Florida on Sunday.

“America is a promise. It is a promise of freedom and liberty — not for some, but for all,” said Harris before further explaining that it’s “a promise we made in the Declaration of Independence that we are each endowed with the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Declaration states that “all men” are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” a ubiquitous trio held up by American politicians immemorial. Life, however, would have proven a difficult concept to champion for Harris given the purpose of her speech.

During her address, Harris called a ban on abortions performed after 15 weeks gestation passed by Florida’s state legislature last year “radical,” notably without mentioning the specifics of the bill.

At 16 weeks gestation, unborn children have a heartbeat, neural activity, and often have begun to suck their thumbs. Polling consistently indicates that either a majority or plurality of Americans support bans on abortion after 15 weeks gestation.

Harris, on the other hand, supports legislation to, in practice, render abortion legal up to the moment of birth. Last year, she “applaud[ed] members in the House for passing the Women’s Health Protection Act.” Had it passed the Senate, that legislation would have prevented states from prohibiting abortions prior to “viability” — the amorphous point at which a child could be expected to survive outside of the womb — and carved out a broad post-viability exception to any state prohibition for the mother’s “health,” including emotional health.

She doubled down on this position yesterday, declaring that “Congress must pass a bill that protects freedom and liberty. A bill that protects reproductive rights” before promising that President Joe Biden would sign such a bill.

It should go without saying that without life, no other right can be exercised. The vice president’s exclusion of this first and most crucial of the rights listed in the Declaration appears to be a willful attempt to avoid charges of hypocrisy, but what its omission conveyed was more condemnable still: her plainly stated priorities.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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