Kamala Harris Compares Roe v. Wade Being Overturned to Slavery: ‘Our Country Has a History of Claiming Ownership Over Human Bodies’
Vice President Kamala Harris compared current abortion restrictions being passed to slavery during a Monday NAACP speech.
During the address to the 113th NAACP convention, Harris targeted lawmakers passing abortion restrictions in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, grouping the actions by Republicans she said are “attempting to undermine our democracy” by also attacking “the freedom to stay safe from gun violence” and “the freedom to vote.”
“We must recognize there are those who are fighting to drag us backward,” Harris told the crowd. “Extremist so-called leaders who are attempting to undermine our democracy and assault our most fundamental freedoms: the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies, and the freedom to vote.”
She noted “our freedoms are all connected,” urging people to vote Democrat in the midterms, then honing in on the abortion debate.
“To support a woman’s ability, not her government but her, to make that decision does not require anyone to abandon their faith or their beliefs. It just requires us to agree the government shouldn’t be making that decision for her,” the vice president said at the Atlantic City Convention Center in New Jersey.
Harris then made her connection between states enacting abortion restrictions to slavery.
“We know, NAACP, that our country has a history of claiming ownership over human bodies,” she said, “and today, extremist so-called leaders are criminalizing doctors and punishing women from making healthcare decisions for themselves.”
Harris tweeted on Monday that she is also meeting with New Jersey legislators who have passed laws to protect abortion access following the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Our fight for reproductive rights is not only on the national level, but on the state and local. I’m in New Jersey to meet with state legislators who have passed laws to protect the right to reproductive health care and the right of health care providers to provide services.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 18, 2022
