On March 13, 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris held a press conference to discuss the latest attack on reproductive rights. She opened the call by stating that she and President Joe Biden believe that every American should have the right to make decisions for themselves. That includes women having the right to make decisions about their bodies when it comes to healthcare.
Vice President Harris expounded on changes that have taken place since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“States around the country have proposed and passed new extreme laws to ban abortion and criminalized healthcare providers or have moved to enforce old laws on the book, many including no exception even for rape or incest. Just last week, Florida Republican state legislators introduced a bill to ban abortions after six weeks. That is before many women even know they’re pregnant. There are 4 million women of reproductive age in Florida, and the consequences would reach far beyond Florida because think about the geography,” Vice President Harris said.
According to Vice President Harris, just last week a group of five women filed a lawsuit against Texas after they were denied healthcare. She was able to speak to one of the women involved.
“I’m grateful to have met with one of the plaintiffs, Amanda, and many of you may know her story. She was pregnant, and her water broke prematurely. And she went to seek medical care and was repeatedly denied treatment. Only after she developed sepsis, which almost killed her, did the hospital finally treat her. Imagine. These women are fighting for basic right-to-life-saving healthcare. Even as women fight for their lives in the face of the Texas abortion bans that currently exist, so-called leaders in Texas continue to try to restrict access to reproductive healthcare,” Vice President Harris shared.
These changes in reproductive rights are not only a threat to women but minority women, especially Black women who have a high maternal mortality rate.
“This is a very real issue. You know, I said before — I’ll say — I’ll say, again, you know, I would challenge the hypocrisy of people who say they care about life and then ignore the maternal mortality crisis. Right? And you know — everyone on this call knows — we are looking at a case, in the United States of America, where Black women are three times as likely to die in connection with childbirth. Native women are twice as likely to die. Rural women are one and a half times as likely. And when we dive into this issue, in particular when it relates to Black and Native women, we know that one of the big factors there is racial bias. That when that woman walks into the hospital or the clinic, she is just not taken as seriously. We know a related issue for all of the women affected by maternal mortality is also poverty. You know, look, poverty is trauma-inducing. And so, when you think about the factors that contribute to those awful outcomes, in terms of maternal mortality, that — the stressors have to be taken into account, and we have to talk about that. ,” Vice President Harris said.
Vice President Harris ended the call with a plan to train healthcare providers, with a focus on doulas.
