Vice President Harris on Thursday marked the second anniversary of the leaked Supreme Court draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade with a fresh round of attacks on former President Trump over abortion, in a video obtained exclusively by The Hill.
“Two years ago, we learned in a leaked draft decision that the Supreme Court of the United States would overturn Roe vs. Wade,” Harris said in the video. “And in the two years since, in states across our nation, extremists have proposed and passed laws to criminalize doctors and punish women. Laws that make no exceptions even for rape and incest.”
She noted 1 in 3 women of reproductive age live in a state with an abortion ban.
“Be clear: Donald Trump did this. He handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe, and they did as intended,” she added. “And he says he is proudly responsible for it.”
Harris went on to warn that Trump would sign a national abortion ban if elected in November, contrasting that with President Biden’s pledge to sign abortion protections into law if a Democratic Congress votes to codify Roe v. Wade during a potential second term.
“Because you see, we trust women. And women trust us to fight for reproductive freedom,” Harris said.
Trump has said a national abortion ban is not necessary because states are able to implement their own policies restricting the procedure after the fall of Roe.
The video was published two years after Politico first reported on a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that held Roe v. Wade should be overturned. The Supreme Court and its conservative majority voted to overturn Roe in June 2022.
Harris has emerged as the top messenger for the White House and Biden campaign on the issue of abortion as Republican-led states have enacted laws restricting access to the procedure. She is set to travel to Pennsylvania, a key battleground in the upcoming election, for an event May 8 on reproductive rights, a campaign official confirmed to The Hill.
The vice president traveled Wednesday to Florida on the same day the state’s six-week abortion ban went into effect to blame Trump directly for the policy and to warn of the dire consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
“As of this morning, 4 million women in this state woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night. This is the new reality under a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said during a campaign rally.
Abortion is a major issue heading into the 2024 election and a significant vulnerability for Trump, who is leading President Biden in battleground state polling.
Trump has been adamant that states should be left to decide their own abortion policies, either through legislation or through ballot measures. In an interview with Time magazine published this week, Trump said it should be left up to individual states to decide whether to monitor women’s pregnancies or whether to prosecute those who illegally get an abortion.
“States are deciding. And some people are unhappy because it’s too liberal a policy or too conservative a policy, but we’ve brought it back into the states, where it has to be,” he said Wednesday at a Wisconsin rally. “And over a period of time that works out. And it’s taken a lot of the controversy out, and it’s been a good thing.
“You have to go with your heart. You have to do what’s right. But you also have to get elected,” Trump added. “Because if you don’t get elected, a lot of bad things will happen beyond the abortion issue. A lot of very bad things will happen from taxes, to military to everything else. So it’s been very interesting to see the process.”