Vice President Kamala Harris plans on Friday to give her first abortion speech in Atlanta, where she will address the deaths of two Georgia women who, according to a senior campaign official, highlight the “dangerous consequences” of what Harris calls “Trump Abortion Bans.”
Reproductive rights have been one of the driving issues of the Harris’ campaign. Her team launched a “reproductive freedom” bus tour in early September with their first stop in Palm Beach County, former President Donald Trump’s backyard.
According to that same senior official, Harris plans to warn Georgians to not believe what the campaign describes as Trump’s flip-flopping record regarding abortion — noting that, if given the chance, he would ban abortion nationwide.
In this file photo, pro-abortion rights activists rally outside the State Capitol in support of abortion rights in Atlanta, Georgia on May 14, 2022.
Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images
Trump during this month’s debate noted that he had returned the regulation of abortion care to state governments, saying it should be up to the states to decide. He would not commit during the debate to vetoing a potential federal abortion ban if it came to his desk as president. Instead, he said that situation would not arise.
Harris on Friday plans to speak about two women who died in 2022. Amber Thurman and Candi Miller’s deaths were a direct result of Georgia’s six-week ban, according to reporting by ProPublica. The Georgia ban went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
Thurman died two weeks after the Georgia ban was passed in 2022, after waiting 20 hours in a suburban Atlanta hospital for an incomplete abortion, according to the report. Miller died after declining to seek medical care for complications from abortion medication, the report said.
Thurman’s family appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s “Unite for America” live-streamed event that featured Harris on Thursday. In one of the more emotional moments of the program, her mother, Shanette Williams, tearfully proclaimed that she would not let her daughter become a “statistic.”
“Initially, I did not want the public to know my pain,” Williams recounted through tears. “I wanted to go through in silence. But I realized that it was selfish. I want y’all to know that Amber was not a statistic. She was loved by a family, a strong family, and we would have done whatever to get my baby, our baby, the help that she needed.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris answers an audience member’s question as she joins Oprah Winfrey at Oprah’s Unite for America Live Streaming event Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in Farmington Hills, Mich.
Paul Sancya/AP
Georgia is a key battleground state that Biden narrowly won in 2020, beating former Trump by about 12,000 votes. Recognizing that she could not only rely on voters in the metro-Atlanta area to keep the state blue, Harris visited rural counties in southeastern Georgia during a two-day swing that culminated in a rally in Savannah.
Currently, Harris is neck-and-neck with Trump in the polls in the state, according to 538’s average. Trump leads by a one-point margin in Georgia, with 48% compared to Harris’ 47%.
The vice president is scheduled to head to Madison, Wisconsin, for a rally later on Friday evening.
Georgia Governor Stacey Abrams is set to address the controversial abortion policies in the state, linking the deaths of two women to the Trump administration’s restrictive measures. The issue of abortion has been a hot-button topic in Georgia, with the passing of the “heartbeat bill” earlier this year, which bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks into a pregnancy.
The deaths of two women in Georgia have brought renewed attention to the impact of restrictive abortion policies. Both women died as a result of complications from illegal abortions, highlighting the dangers that women face when access to safe and legal abortion services is restricted.
Governor Abrams has been a vocal advocate for reproductive rights and has been critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back access to abortion services. In a statement, she said, “The deaths of these two women are a tragic reminder of the consequences of policies that restrict access to safe and legal abortion. We must do everything we can to protect women’s health and ensure that they have access to the care they need.”
The Trump administration has implemented a number of policies that have made it more difficult for women to access abortion services, including cutting funding for family planning clinics that provide abortion services, implementing restrictions on Title X funding, and appointing anti-abortion judges to federal courts.
Governor Abrams is expected to address these issues in her speech, calling for a reversal of these harmful policies and advocating for greater access to safe and legal abortion services. She will also likely highlight the importance of protecting women’s health and ensuring that they have the right to make decisions about their own bodies.
The deaths of these two women serve as a stark reminder of the real-world consequences of restrictive abortion policies. Governor Abrams’ speech will bring much-needed attention to this important issue and hopefully spark a conversation about how we can better protect women’s health and ensure that they have access to the care they need.
