Why Vice President Harris went to Wisconsin today to talk about abortion
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Vice President Harris speaks about reproductive rights on Jan. 22, 2024 in Big Bend, Wis.Scott Olson / Getty Images -
Vice President Harris in Big Bend, Wis., the first stop in a series of events aimed at highlighting restrictions on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe.Scott Olson / Getty Images
Vice President Harris marked the 51st anniversary of landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade on Tuesday by kicking off a tour to draw attention to new restrictions on abortion, laying the blame for them at the feet of former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the race to become the Republican candidate for November's election.
"The former president handpicked three Supreme Court justices because he intended for them to overturn Roe. It is a decision he brags about," Harris said in a fiery campaign-style speech. "How dare he!"
One in three women of reproductive age live in states with abortion bans, Harris said. The post-Roe restrictions are an issue that Democrats hope will fire up voters for the presidential election.
Since the court's Dobbs decision ended Roe, voters have turned out in record numbers in states like Michigan and Kansas to support measures to protect reproductive rights with new laws. It's that energy that Harris is hoping to tap into as she reaches out to voters ahead of the election this year — an election where swing states like Arizona and Nevada may also have ballot initiatives on abortion rights.
"Momentum is on our side," Harris said. "Since Roe was overturned, every time reproductive freedom has been on the ballot, the people of America have voted for freedom."
The first stop was Waukesha County
Harris plans to hit about five places during the next two months to highlight this issue, including states that have enshrined protections for abortion since the Supreme Court rolled back abortion rights in 2022, states that have restricted access, and states that have threatened to restrict access.
The vice president's team picked Wisconsin's Waukesha County to launch the tour. The politically important state illustrates how people's lives were affected when Roe was struck down.
Wisconsin effectively banned abortion, reverting to a law written in 1849. For about 15 months, there were no legal abortions available in the state.
"In a state whose motto is, 'Forward,' these extremists are trying to take us backward — but we're not having that," Harris said.
Wisconsin is also a key swing state that Democrats want to win in November. Former President Donald Trump carried Waukesha County — a suburb of Milwaukee — in 2016 and 2020. But Democrats have made a series of inroads there.
Mini Timmaraju, who leads the organization Reproductive Freedom for All, said voters will keep paying attention to the issue of abortion rights because of how high-stakes it has become for women's health.
"We've had multiple, high-profile abortion access and Dobbs-related crisis stories," Timmaraju said. "Unfortunately, the story's not going away and therefore the saliency of the issue isn't going away."
Biden and Harris will hold a rally on the issue on Tuesday
On Tuesday, Harris and Biden will appear together at a campaign rally in Northern Virginia, along with their spouses, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
The event is counterprogramming for the Republican primary in New Hampshire. The Biden campaign is seeking to draw attention to what Trump and other Republicans have said about abortion, which is one of the most difficult issues Republicans will face with voters.
Democrats in Virginia campaigned on the issue of reproductive rights last year, during state-level elections, and won back control of the state legislature.
It's a rare for Biden to headline an event on reproductive care. While the president has a long voting record of supporting Roe, he has expressed that he personally is opposed to abortion.
"I happen to be a practicing Catholic. I'm not big on abortion. But guess what? Roe v. Wade got it right," Biden said at a fundraiser last June.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, one of the co-chairs of Biden's reelection campaign, said in an interview that aired Sunday that it would help if Biden talked more about abortion rights.
"I think people want to know that this is a president that is fighting. And I think he has said that. To use maybe more, you know, blunt language, maybe that would be helpful," Whitmer said.
Democrats want to reach young voters and women on this issue
Biden's campaign is featuring the issue in advertising this week with a spot that tells the story of an OB-GYN who had to leave Texas with her family to seek an abortion for a planned pregnancy that put her life at risk. In the ad, Dr. Austin Dennard explicitly blames Trump for his role in overturning abortion rights.
The campaign says the ad will run on channels like HGTV, Bravo, Food Network and Hallmark in an effort to reach suburban women and younger voters, who are critical voting blocs for Democrats.
"This ad serves as a sobering reminder to women across the country of the devastating legacy of Donald Trump's presidency – and a warning of his plans, if elected, to take this anti-abortion crusade even further," Biden's campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said in a statement.
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Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Today is the anniversary of a former constitutional right.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Now, for half a century, that ruling said Americans had the right to abortion. In 2022, the court majority said that right did not exist and never did. The ruling then threw abortion to legislatures - to politics, basically - and that energy and that turnout is something that Democrats are hoping to tap into this year in the presidential election. Here's Vice President Kamala Harris.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: In this year of our Lord, 2024, the government should not be telling women what to do with their bodies.
MARTÍNEZ: So today, she's kicking off a tour on this issue in Wisconsin.
INSKEEP: NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram is covering this story. Good morning.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK, so why are you guys traveling to Wisconsin?
SHIVARAM: It's interesting because there are a lot of places where Kamala Harris could have started this tour, right? And to start in Wisconsin was a really deliberate choice by the VP's team. And she's not only starting just in Wisconsin, but she's in Waukesha County, which is a suburb of Milwaukee. It's a county that Donald Trump won in 2016 and in 2020. But it's part of the state where Democrats have been making inroads in recent elections. And when I spoke to a White House official a few days ago about this trip, they described Wisconsin as really representing the chaos of what overturning Roe did to people's lives.
Right after the Supreme Court struck it down, Wisconsin decided to essentially ban abortions based on this little-known state law from 1849. And there was a 15-month stretch where people couldn't get legal abortions in the state. So the idea from the VP's team is really to showcase how far the country was taken back when Roe was overturned and kind of remind people, you know, how much the lives of patients and providers were disrupted and the dangers to people's health that has come with that.
INSKEEP: Well, the last couple of years have shown the political momentum on the pro-abortion rights side because more conservative places - Kansas, Ohio - have voted or found support for abortion rights. But how does the White House try to keep up momentum on their side in this?
SHIVARAM: So I think one thing that will be notable to watch is where Harris ends up traveling on this tour. We don't have all the places she's going to go yet, but the goal for the VP is to highlight both sides of the spectrum on this issue, to visit states that have rolled back abortion rights and also states that have voted recently to enshrine them, like you mentioned them, turn them into law and have advanced reproductive freedoms because people turned out to vote. And I'm also watching to see if Harris will be going to any states that are trying to have abortion initiatives on their ballots this fall, states like Arizona and Nevada, which are really crucial get out the vote states for Democrats.
One thing that's also been kind of a different strategy, Steve, is that Harris has also been sharing a bit more about her own experience as a prosecutor and how she personally is connected to this issue of fighting for women and children. I spoke with Christina Reynolds from EMILY's List, which is a political organization that helps elect women who support abortion rights. And she says it's likely that Harris may put some emphasis on the tour on what Republican candidates are also saying they'll do to reduce those rights.
CHRISTINA REYNOLDS: It's less about changing and more about making sure that that message gets out there, that the threat on the other side gets out there, and making sure that a variety of audiences hear it.
SHIVARAM: And one of those key audiences that she's talking about that Harris is trying to reach on this issue is young voters, which the campaign is really trying to energize right now.
INSKEEP: It is interesting. On the Republican side, Donald Trump has effectively said this issue that he's been so involved with is a political loser. Nikki Haley has wanted to take it off the national table. Is President Biden likely to weigh in?
SHIVARAM: He's going to weigh in because people will hear from him tomorrow, actually. The campaign is throwing a big rally in Northern Virginia. It's the first one this year that both Biden and Harris will be there for, as well as the first lady, Jill Biden, and Doug Emhoff, who's the second gentleman, of course. And the fact that it's in Virginia is pretty notable, too. In state level elections that happened last year, Democrats campaigned on protecting abortion rights and were able to win back full control of the state legislature. And that kind of momentum is what Biden and Harris really want to tap into for their campaign this year.
INSKEEP: NPR's Deepa Shivaram, thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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