(Big Bend) “How dare he? » US Vice President Kamala Harris and Joe Biden launched an attack on Donald Trump on Monday on the right to abortion, a subject that could prove decisive in the November elections in the United States.
Kamala Harris kicked off a national tour dedicated to defending access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in Wisconsin, a state that will be extremely contested in the fall presidential election.
She called for being “lucid” about who is responsible for the decline in abortion rights in the United States, namely, according to her, Donald Trump, former president and current favorite in the Republican primary.
This January 22, America marks the 51ste anniversary of the famous Roe v. Wade, who in 1973 established a constitutional right to abortion throughout the country.
This right, against which the American religious right has mobilized since it saw the light of day, was shattered in June 2022. The Supreme Court, which has become very conservative following the appointments made by Donald Trump, estimated that the right to abortion was not guaranteed by the Constitution, and that the American states had jurisdiction in the matter.
” Proud ”
Donald Trump, the overwhelming favorite in the Republican primary, recently said he was “proud” of having contributed to the reversal of jurisprudence.
“Proud that young women today have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers? How does he dare ? » said Kamala Harris indignantly, to the applause of the audience, who had previously booed the reference to the Republican tycoon.
“I don’t believe there are laws to tell a man what to do with his body,” said Corinda Rainey-Moore, who came to listen to the vice-president.
“I want my daughter, and perhaps her daughter one day, to have the same rights as those I had myself,” said Irene Parthum, a retiree also present.
Since June 2022, around twenty states have banned abortion or imposed severe restrictions, in some cases threatening health professionals with heavy penalties.
“I met a woman who went to the emergency room for a miscarriage and was sent away because the doctors were afraid they would go to jail if they treated her. She only received care after she declared sepsis,” said Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s co-list for the November presidential election.
Attacking the Republicans, she assured: “these extremists want to take us back. We do not accept it! »
The Democratic president, for his part, brought together a working group at the White House dedicated to defending the right to abortion, which remains a very important political fault line in the United States.
He also castigated the decisions taken in conservative states.
“Extremists”
Abortion remains a historic fault line in the United States, with even polls showing that a majority of Americans are now in favor of this right.
“These extremist laws have no place in the United States,” assured Joe Biden, criticizing in particular the attorney general of Alabama (south), for his desire to prosecute anyone who would help a member of his family to abort elsewhere.
PHOTO MADDIE MCGARVEY, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
People celebrate the passage of a constitutional right to abortion in Ohio during an election night event at the Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights office in Columbus on November 7, 2023.
“This is what happens when the right to privacy is attacked,” the American president said.
The vast majority of Americans support the right to abortion, according to polls.
The shock caused by the new jurisprudence of the Supreme Court allowed Joe Biden to limit the damage during the mid-term legislative elections in the fall of 2022, and the American president wants to believe that he will benefit from the same momentum in November.
The offensive launched Monday on the defense of abortion will also be a test of the electoral firepower of Kamala Harris, the first woman and first African-American in her position, who has been plowing the ground for several weeks.
The 59-year-old Democrat, whom the Republican opposition crushes at the slightest opportunity, recently received a rare, and undoubtedly unintentional, compliment from a Fox News columnist.
PHOTO EVELYN HOCKSTEIN, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Vice President Kamala Harris will undertake a national tour dedicated to defending abortion rights.
“What Kamala does [en termes de campagne sur le droit à l’avortement] has a powerful impact on young women,” commented a former spokesperson for Donald Trump, Kayleigh McEnany, on the conservatives’ favorite channel.