Harris on Indiana abortion law: ‘On this issue, I’m kind of done’

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) responded to Indiana’s abortion ruling on Tuesday, saying she is “kind of done” on the issue of states moving to impose restrictions on abortion.

“Are we going to go back to the days of back-alley abortions? Women died before we had Roe v. Wade in place,” Harris told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell at a town hall hosted by the network in Spartanburg, S.C.

“So I’m going to tell you, on this issue, I’m kind of done,” she continued to applause.

As President, I will stop dangerous state laws restricting reproductive rights before they go into effect. pic.twitter.com/w0cDxdH51T

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) May 29, 2019

The senator’s comments come after the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up a challenge to a provision blocking abortions on the basis of sex, race or disability in Indiana.{mosads}

The move avoided a major ruling on the procedure, allowing the high court to sidestep the issue for now.

Tuesday’s ruling came as the Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s decision to invalidate part of the state’s abortion law on the disposal of fetal remains.

The court gave conservatives a partial win by upholding a provision that required remains from an abortion or miscarriage to be buried or cremated. 

Numerous conservative state legislatures have passed new abortion restrictions in recent months, seemingly with the goal of getting the measures to the Supreme Court.

Harris went on to explain her own abortion rights policy proposal, saying she would require states that pass restrictions on the procedure to get approval from her administration before implementing any new laws connected to abortion.

“When elected, I’m going to put in place and require that states that have history of passing legislation that is designed to limit or prevent a woman’s access to reproductive health care, that those laws have to come before my Department of Justice for a review and approval,” she said.