With President Joe Biden stepping down from re-election later this year and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, is Kamala Harris really as pro-abortion as she is portrayed by many news outlets?
Our news team has done a deep dive, reviewing her past statements and votes on abortion along with a number of other resources to produce this in-depth article on her views on abortion.
Harris has been a long-time supporter of abortion and has a track record of using her political position and influence to promote it. If she is selected as the Democrats’ presidential nominee and wins the election in November, it is likely that the defence and expansion of abortion access will be among her priorities.
Who is Kamala Harris?
Kamala Harris is the Vice President (VP) of the US under President Joe Biden, and is the first woman to ever hold that office.
After earning a law degree from the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco in 1989, she then served as Deputy District Attorney for Alameda County from 1990 to1998, San Francisco District Attorney from 2004 to 2011 and California Attorney General from 2011 to 2017, after which she took up her role as a senator in California between 2017 and 2021. Since 2021 she has served as VP and is a front-runner to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee.
Kamala Harris as Attorney General and Senator
In 2015, activist David Daleiden released a series of videos that appeared to show officials from the American abortion giant Planned Parenthood “discussing reimbursement for handling fetal tissue and organs, which are illegal to sell for a profit”.
The following year, Harris, in her role as Attorney General, launched an intrusive investigation into Daleidan including a raid on his house and confiscation of his undercover recordings.
During the same year, while she was also running for the Senate, her campaign website contained an appeal to supporters to sign a petition to defend Planned Parenthood. In 2020, during her campaign to become VP, the same abortion giant produced a campaign video urging voters to support Harris.
She supported the Reproductive FACT Act in California, signed into law in 2015. This law required pro-life pregnancy resource centres, which do not provide abortions, to post signs advertising the availability of abortion in the state, and provide a contact number for said signs. This law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2018.
In 2019, as Senator, Harris co-sponsored the Women’s Health Protection Act, a radical piece of legislation that would have made extreme changes to abortion provision throughout the United States.
In her short-lived run for President in the same year, Harris made a number of public statements about her support for abortion. She posted on X “As President, I will stop dangerous state laws restricting reproductive rights before they go into effect”.
She also said “My promise to you: As president, I will have my Department of Justice block dangerous abortion restrictions before they take effect in states that have pushed unconstitutional anti-choice legislation, ensuring that states can’t chip away at women’s rights”.
As presidential hopeful in 2019, Harris also affirmed that she would “codify” Roe v. Wade, which could involve passing a federal law that would prevent states from making restrictions on abortion outside of what Congress decides.
As VP nominee in 2020, Harris said “As states across our nation continue to attack reproductive rights, especially abortion, it’s more important than ever we have a president who will defend and expand these rights. As president, [Joe Biden] will codify Roe v. Wade and protect the constitutional right to choose”.
In 2020, when asked what would become of Roe v. Wade if Judge Amy Coney Barrett were confirmed to the Supreme Court (which she subsequently was) and what she thought of the case, Harris responded “I will always fight for a woman’s right to make a decision about her own body. It should be her decision”.
Kamala Harris as Vice President
During her tenure as VP, Harris has not relented on her strong pro-abortion positions. In May 2020, in response to leaks that indicated that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, Harris described the return of powers to the states to make their own abortion laws as “a direct assault on freedom”.
During the announcement of her ‘Fight For Reproductive Freedoms Tour’ in December last year, Harris accused those who wanted to increase protections for unborn babies through law of being “extremists” adding “I will continue to fight for our fundamental freedoms while bringing together those throughout America who agree that every woman should have the right to make decisions about her own body – not the government”.
As part of the tour in March of this year, Harris is believed to have been the first president or VP to visit a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. During her visit she aggressively promoted abortion, accusing those of trying to introduce pro-life laws of “immoral” behaviour through their attempts to limit abortion.
The Vice President said that since Roe v. Wade was overruled, “extremists have proposed and passed laws that have denied women access to [abortion]”.
In light of the presidential election later this year, earlier this month, Harris said “Let’s be clear: Donald Trump would sign a national abortion ban and restrict access to contraception if given the chance. That is what’s at stake in November. We will stop him”.
In a meeting with abortion providers in May of this year, the VP told them they were “on the front lines against this war on women’s rights” and called Oklahoma’s new law restricting abortion “outrageous” and “extreme”.
In July this year, Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of pro-abortion Reproductive Freedom for All, endorsed Harris’s abortion record saying “There is nobody who has fought as hard for abortion rights and access, and we are proud to endorse her in this race”.
Kamala Harris as President
With the current Democratic Party platform (manifesto) firmly supporting “reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion” alongside a commitment to “restore federal funding for Planned Parenthood”, and Harris’s track record of abortion advocacy, it is highly likely that Harris will continue in her efforts to protect and expand abortion access across the US to the fullest extent possible.
Our team have also undertaken a ‘deep dive’ on Donald Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance’s past activity on the abortion issue, which is available here.
