By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-09-24 16:36:20 | Updated at 2024-09-30 17:20:37
6 days ago
Vice President Kamala Harris said she supports ending the filibuster in the Senate to pass abortion rights protections as legislation to protect abortion access federally has been blocked from moving forward since the overturning of Roe v Wade.
The Democratic presidential nominee forcefully called for the change during an interview aired Tuesday on Wisconsin Public Radio.
'I've been very clear, I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,' Harris said.
Democrats have been trying to pass legislation restoring the abortion protections provided in Roe v Wade since the landmark decision was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022.
However, Democrats need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster in the Senate but only hold a 51 seat majority.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaking in Georgia on September 20 about reproductive freedom. Harris backs ending the Senate filibuster to pass legislation restoring protections in Roe
Harris has been leading the Biden administration's charge to protect access to abortion since the Dobbs decision returned the issue to the states, but she acknowledged it would take an act of Congress to protect access federally.
'We need the votes in Congress to do exactly what you are saying, and that's true,' Harris said of passing legislation. 'It is well within our reach to hold onto the majority in the Senate and take back the House.'
Abortion rights is one of the top issues in the 2024 presidential election after it was a galvanizing issue for Democrats in the 2022 midterms.
Harris has been actively campaigning on protecting reproductive freedoms while her campaign has highlighted the issue in ads and is in the middle of a 'Fight for Reproductive Freedom' bus tour across battleground states.
The overturning of Roe has put her rival Donald Trump and Republicans in Washington on defense as Democrats blame them for the overturning of Roe.
Trump nominated three of the six conservative Supreme Court justices who ruled in the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe.
On Friday, Harris traveled to Atlanta, Georgia just days after ProPublica released a report on two Georgia women whose deaths have been tied to the state's abortion ban.
Speaking in Atlanta, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the deaths of two women in the state that have been tied to Georgia's abortion ban
Addressing her audience, Harris spoke of 28-year-old mother who died in August 2022 after doctors delayed care due to the state's six-week abortion ban, stating 'we will speak her name: Amber Nicole Thurman.'
She called the deaths 'preventable' and 'predictable.' Critics have accused her of using the deaths to score political points.
The vice president on the campaign trail has long vowed to sign legislation to codify Roe if it is passed.
Democrats in the Senate first attempted to pass legislation protection abortion access in May 2022 after the Supreme Court decision leaked but it failed.
Another attempt to pass protections in July also was blocked by Republicans.
President Biden has long said he supports an exception to the filibuster to allow Democrats to pass legislation protecting abortion.
Harris has vowed as vice president to be the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to end the filibuster for legislation to codify Roe, but her comments on Tuesday mark the first time Harris has reiterated her position as presidential nominee.
In March, Harris became the first vice president or president to ever visit an abortion clinic when she went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota to tour and deliver remarks.
