By The New York Times (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-26 05:17:39 | Updated at 2024-10-26 07:19:37
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Kamala Harris used Texas’ strict abortion ban as a cautionary tale as she sought to lay out the stakes of a deadlocked election.
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Beyoncé Campaigns With Harris in Texas
Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland expressed support for Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event focused on abortion rights in Houston on Friday night.
We are grabbing back the pen from those who are trying to write an American story that would deny the right for women to make our own decisions about our bodies. I’m not here as a celebrity. I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother. A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in. A world where we have the freedom to control our bodies. It’s time for America to sing a new song. Our voices sing a chorus of unity. They sing a song of dignity and opportunity. Are y’all ready to add your voice to the new American song? Because I am. So let’s do this. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, loud Texas welcome to the next president of the United States: Vice President Kamala Harris.
Oct. 26, 2024Updated 1:08 a.m. ET
Vice President Kamala Harris diverted from the presidential battlegrounds on Friday to receive the endorsement of the global superstar Beyoncé in Texas, in an event almost entirely focused on abortion rights.
With the presidential race deadlocked, the Harris campaign sought to use Beyoncé’s status — particularly in her hometown, Houston — to focus attention on the state’s near-total abortion ban as a cautionary tale for what could happen throughout the country should former President Donald J. Trump win another term in the White House.
The rally in Houston was not only her campaign’s largest but also its most emotionally charged event since she became the Democratic nominee. Beyoncé offered a speech focused on a more optimistic future, and the wrenching stories of Texas women who suffered life-threatening health complications as a result of being denied proper care for pregnancy complications were center stage.
Ms. Harris and many of the speakers laid the blame solely on Mr. Trump, who frequently boasts of appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.
While Mr. Trump has promised to leave abortion laws to individual states, and says he would veto a national ban, allies of the former president and officials who served in his administration are planning ways to restrict abortion rights that would go beyond the laws enacted in conservative states across the country.
Ms. Harris warned that, if elected to another term, Mr. Trump would move to ban abortion nationally — regardless of his campaign promises.
