PHOENIX (CN) — Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Friday for greater access to abortion and other reproductive health care on International Women’s Day, even as protesters outside the event decried her administration’s economic support of Israel.
Her trip to the South Mountain Community Center in Phoenix was the fifth stop on her Fight for Reproductive Freedoms Tour. Harris addressed a crowd of about 200 people inside the community center before catching a flight to her next destination in Los Angeles.
In her 15-minute speech, Harris denounced “political extremists” across the nation for overturning Roe v Wade and advocating for laws that “punish doctors and harm women” who seek reproductive care like abortions and contraception.
“These extremists are trying to take women back to the 1800s,” she said, referencing Arizona’s 1864 near-total ban on abortions that was revived with Roe’s overturning. “But we’re not gonna let them.”
The room erupted with applause.
Just months before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson overturned the nearly-50 year precedent, Arizona passed a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, except in the case of a medical emergency. The reconciliation of the two active abortion laws has been pending before the state supreme court since it heard oral arguments in December 2023.
Meanwhile, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs’ June executive order is keeping county attorneys from prosecuting women and physicians for seeking and providing abortions.
Harris called for national protection of in vitro fertilization — the fertilization of eggs in a lab setting — following an Alabama Supreme Court decision that ruled frozen fertilized eggs are living human beings.
She called Republican lawmakers dishonest about their desire to protect women and children, saying they’ve been “silent” on maternal mortality. All ten states in the nation with the highest maternal mortality rates have abortion bans in place, she pointed out.
“The hypocrisy abounds,” she said.
Early in Harris’ speech, a woman was swiftly escorted out of the building after shouting “Free Palestine!” Harris continued her speech through the interruption.
“What about women in Palestine who have C-Sections with no anesthetic?” the protester said. “What about women in Palestine who are being murdered on their way to the hospital?”
Last week, Israeli troops opened fire on and killed 100 Palestinians in Gaza as they tried to get food from a humanitarian aid truck. The U.S. Secretary of Defense said that more than 25,000 women and children have been killed in Gaza. The U.S. has agreed to send more than $4 billion a year through 2028 to the Israeli military. It has sent about $121 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The roughly 75 protesters outside the event center celebrated the disruption, chanting slogans like “Genocide Joe has got to go,” and “Justice is our demand.” They called Harris “Bloody Harris.”
One protester called it a “slap in the face” for Harris to speak on women’s issues on International Women’s Day given the number of women suffering in Gaza.
“This is not gonna get the women voters,” she said. “They hate her. She’s our first woman vice president and she just fucking ruined it for all women. She’s not representing us.”
The protester didn’t share her name.
Back inside, Harris promised that Biden will veto any national abortion ban that Congress may put on his desk.
“We trust women,” she said. “And women trust us to fight to protect their most fundamental freedoms.”
She called out former President Donald Trump for appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices with the intention of overturning Roe.
“‘I did it, and I’m proud to have done it,’” Harris quoted Trump saying.
“Proud that women across our nation are suffering?” she asked. “How dare he?”
Finally, she urged voters to sign the petition to put abortion access on the general election ballot in November. It has already received more than 250,000 of the 400,000 required signatures.
“Every time reproductive freedom has been on the ballot, the people of America have voted for freedom,” she said.
Harris was preceded on stage by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, U.S. Representative for Arizona Greg Stanton and Planned Parenthood President Angela Florez, among others.
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