May 24, 2022

Vice President Harris Meets with Abortion Orgs; Promising Support

photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
Vice President Kamala Harris met with representatives from abortion organizations on Thursday to discuss the Supreme Court's potential reversal of Roe v. Wade.

The White House shared Harris's opening remarks for that meeting. In them, she makes false claims about the extent of the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court, and she disparages Oklahomans for passing a bill that would ban abortion from the moment of fertilization.

“So, this, when and if it happens, will be an extreme step backward. And it represents a threat not just to women, but to all Americans,” Harris said.

“The right to privacy that forms the basis of Roe is the same right to privacy that protects the right to use contraception, and the right to marry the person you love, including a person of the same sex. Overturning Roe opens the door to restricting those rights,” Harris continued. “It would be a direct assault on the fundamental right to self-determination, to live and love without interference from the government. At its core, this is about our future as a nation, about whether we live in a country where the country can interfere in personal decisions.”

This repeats the false claim made by Presiden Biden and other pro-abortion politicians about the extent of the Supreme Court's leaked draft opinion. The text of that opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, explicitly states that it would not alter or rescind any precedents other than those regarding abortion specifically.

"None of the other decisions cited by Roe and Casey involved the critical moral question posed by abortion," the leaked draft opinion reads. "They do not support the right to obtain an abortion, and by the same token, our conclusion that the Constitution does not confer such a right does not undermine them in any way."

Harris went on to reference a pro-life Oklahoma bill that recently passed the state legislature; stating that Oklahomans and those in other pro-life states design such bills to "punish and control women." She argued that a woman's ability to get an abortion is "directly connected to her power to make decisions about her future." This statement implies that after giving birth, a mother will be forced to parent the baby; and furthermore implies that mothers are not capable of having careers. Both of these things are false. Adoption, parenting, and fulfilling careers are all possible for women when they are given life-affirming resources.

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