(Washington) American Vice President Kamala Harris visited a clinic performing abortions on Thursday, a first according to the American press in a context where the Democrats want to place this theme at the center of the electoral campaign.
“We must be a nation that trusts women,” said Ms.me Harris, during his visit to a family planning clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota (north), according to the White House.
The “attacks on the individual right to make decisions that concern one’s own body are scandalous,” added Joe Biden’s running mate for the November presidential election, who has been leading a national tour since January dedicated to defending the right to ‘abortion.
Never before has a president or vice-president visited a clinic practicing voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), according to American media.
Ahead of the vice-president’s trip, the White House had affirmed that it would endeavor to highlight the impact of the “extreme abortion bans” put in place in many conservative states since the American Supreme Court was returned, in June 2022, on the federal guarantee of this constitutional right, leaving it to the States to legislate on the matter.
This earthquake pushed, in total, around twenty American states to ban or very severely limit voluntary terminations of pregnancies.
“Extremists”
Nearly two dozen anti-abortion activists demonstrated in the street outside the clinic during Kamala Harris’ visit, with signs proclaiming, among other things, “abortion is not health care.”
Calling abortion rights opponents “extremists,” the vice president praised the clinic’s employees, who she said have “dedicated their lives to the profession of providing health care in a safe, which gives dignity to people.
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the November presidential election, said he was “proud” to have contributed to the 2022 turnaround in jurisprudence, by appointing conservative judges during his presidency (2017-2021).
Kamala Harris, a figure in the Biden camp on this issue, intends to use this statement against the 77-year-old tycoon during the electoral campaign.
Abortion remains a historic fault line in the United States, even if polls show that a majority of Americans are today in favor of a right to abortion.
This notably allowed Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic, but firm defender of this right, to avoid a scathing defeat against the Republicans during the mid-term legislative elections in the fall of 2022.
The Democratic camp wants to believe that it will benefit from the same momentum in November during the presidential election.