During the hearing of Brett Cavanaugh’s Supreme Court assertion in 2018, then-California Senator Kamala Harris asked the judge if she thinks women’s privacy rights apply to abortion options. Cavanaugh declined to respond.
Judge Cavanaugh is now part of the majority of the court that supported the repeal against Ro Wade, and the senator is now vice president, Harris warns that the court’s decision could lead to the same far-reaching privacy restrictions he warned against during those hearings. .
On this subject, relating to his personal and professional experience, Harris has spent the past few weeks sounding the alarm that breaking a sweat could set a precedent for new restrictions on everything from contraception and IVF to gay marriage. , and that states. restrict such. The cases are also breaking new suffrage boundaries.
Justice Clarence Thomas appears to have vindicated such concerns, writing a broader ruling for the Supreme Court to “reconsider” earlier rulings on contraception and same-sex marriage.
Harris has been the Biden administration’s leading voice on abortion rights since early May, when a leaked draft report predicted the abolition of Ro Wade. He was flying to Illinois for a maternal health event when the final decision was announced last week, and he read it while it was still on the air, quickly shifting focus from his planned comments to the decision.
The decision “calls into question other rights that we thought were in place, like the right to use birth control, the right to same-sex marriage, the right to interracial marriage,” Harris told an audience at the suburban YMCA in Friday. , adding that this would trigger a “health crisis”.
In an interview on Monday with CNNHarris said, “I really don’t think it’s over”, adding that Thomas wrote, “I think he just said the silent part out loud”.
He added: “So we all need to understand the meaning of what just happened.”
Becoming a leading voice on abortion access may suit Harris better after President Joe Biden instructed her to oversee other pressing issues that didn’t go well: immigration and expanding voting rights. Comprehensive legislation on both issues has stalled in Congress, leading some lawyers to say the vice president and the White House needed to do more.
Harris, who symbolically led the Senate, did not stop Republicans from blocking attempts to codify federal law against Rowe Wade until a court ruling overturned it. But Democrats hope outrage over the issue will strengthen their base for midterm elections in November, when the party faces stiff opposition.
Announcing the decision, Harris said, “You have the right to elect leaders who will protect and defend your rights. You can act with your voice. And you have the last word. ”
Since Texas law effectively banned abortion in the state in the fall, Harris has met with providers and patients, and his office says this is the first time abortion providers have visited the White House. He stressed that gender discrimination is ongoing and said that “the full participation of women in our nation” is still a goal and not a reality.
After the Supreme Court draft report leaked, the vice president convened a virtual discussion with doctors and nurses who provide abortion services in states with severe restrictions and met with Democratic attorneys general from states that support reproductive rights.
Biden also strongly defended abortion rights and warned that other rights are now at risk. But as a practicing Catholic, he hasn’t always had a strong track record on the matter.
Harris, the first female vice president and former attorney general of California, brings a unique personal perspective and legal experience to the subject.
“The way you see women fighting on behalf of other women is very much in line with who she is,” said Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice president of policy, organization and campaigns at Planned Parenthood.
He added that Harris created the theme to highlight “the difference it makes between black and Latino communities and low-income people.”
Ayers said the Supreme Court’s action allowed the vice president to highlight how he used his position to listen to women and advocate for better health care, perhaps in a way that Biden failed to do.
“That’s not a wedge, it’s just a continuation of a person who has really had a career around big, important issues for them,” Ayers said of the differences between Harris and Biden.
The Reverend John Dorhauer, secretary general and president of The United Church of Christ, attended the latest virtual meeting on abortion rights hosted by Harris and said he was less fearful than some top Democrats about championing the issue.
“It’s incredibly encouraging to hear this from one of the highest offices in this country,” Dorhauer said.
But some abortion opponents argue that Harris undermined his case by equating access to abortion with other, more routine health care.
“It has become emblematic of the absolutism of abortion on the other side,” said Marjorie Dannfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, which supports women who oppose abortion in politics.
As a senator, Harris introduced legislation to improve maternal health. During the 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, then-candidate Harris said it was “shocking” that abortion was overshadowed by other issues, even though a woman’s right to the procedure was “under total attack” even at that time.
The vice president played the most outspoken role when he said the day after the draft report was leaked in May: “Those Republican leaders who are trying to weaponize the law against women, we say to them, how dare you?” .
He then used the following weeks to show that the harassment of Rowe Wade could soon take away other important privacy rights, the same issue he raised during the Cavanaugh hearing.
Harris says many states that aim to ban abortion could restrict IVF if lawmakers argue that human life begins with fertilization. They could ban birth control methods, including intrauterine devices and morning-after pills, he argued.
The vice president said law enforcement can analyze data collected from millions of women who use menstrual cycle tracking apps or who seek abortions on the Internet in other states.
Harris argues that legalizing gay marriage is also at stake, noting that states with the strictest abortion laws often have previous LGBTQ bans that the Supreme Court can reinstate. When those rights fall, the argument goes, voting rights could be next. He called a recent meeting with privacy experts to discuss the matter.
“It’s really slippery on the slippery slope,” said Jennifer Weiss-Wolff, a women and democracy activist at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York, one of the meeting’s participants. “We’re pouring now.”
Michelle Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, told attendees to prepare for the arrival of a “new Jane Crowe” as efforts to restrict abortion begin to mimic outdated laws that have already been passed.
Dennfelser responded that Harris and others were exaggerating, saying that the current Supreme Court “is the least likely to do what it says. They believe in the rule of law.”
“It’s about intimidating people and building a coalition on the other side of the abortion issue,” Dennfelser said.
Harris’ office says he’s really building a coalition, but he’s going to be one of those people who thinks Roe v. Wade’s consequences far outweigh abortion, and not just for women. To help with that, Harris recently met with church leaders in Los Angeles and said “supporting Rowe Wade and what that means doesn’t mean giving up the faith.”
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
