In Charlotte, VP Harris defends abortion rights and decries action of NC legislature

Vice President Kamala Harris told a crowd of supporters Saturday in Charlotte that the Biden administration will stand firm for abortion rights amid Republican challenges nationally and in North Carolina.

“We, all of us, are now called upon to advance the promise of freedom, including the freedom of every woman to make decisions about her own body,” Harris told the crowd.

She likened the cause of abortion rights to those taken up by past generations, including Civil Rights activists in Greensboro.

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Harris spoke at the Grady Cole Center on the one-year anniversary of the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and weeks after North Carolina’s Republican-led General Assembly voted to ban most abortions in the state after 12 weeks.

Republicans overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 20 this month. They were making last-minute changes to it on Thursday, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The new restrictions will go into effect July 1.

“Next week, overruling the will of the people, North Carolina will be the latest state with an extreme ban, in spite of the best efforts of Gov. Roy Cooper,” Harris said.

Harris vowed that if Democrats in Congress pass a bill codifying abortion rights, President Joe Biden will sign it.

Harris began her roughly 20-minute speech at around 1 p.m. to some chants from the crowd of “Four more years.” Earlier, lawmakers and other politicians from North Carolina and its immediate northern and southern neighbors, Virginia and South Carolina, spoke in support of abortion rights as the crowd waited for Harris.

Impact of abortion restrictions

Some experts have warned that new restrictions in the U.S. could lead to women and abortion providers being prosecuted.

Last June, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Mecklenburg County’s top prosecutor told The Observer that his office has different priorities. “I don’t see what is gained by putting a doctor or a woman on the stand to discuss something as personal as a health procedure or prosecuting them for it,” District Attorney Spencer Merriweather said. “I don’t see how that would be functionally possible.”

Of more immediate concern on Saturday: women’s health.

Harris raised the issue of high maternal mortality rates, and said that “extreme” laws across the country over the last year have forced clinics to close, causing communities to miss out on other services, too. Those include routine check-ups, mammogram screenings and other cancer screenings, she said.

“The impact to women’s health issues broadly is very real,” the vice president said.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a North Carolina OB-GYN filed a lawsuit over North Carolina’s new abortion law on June 16, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Wednesday in Greensboro. The judge could issue a temporary restraining order and block the law from taking effect.

Cotham again draws scrutiny

State Rep. Tricia Cotham, whose recent switch from Democrat to Republican enabled the GOP to have a super-majority in the legislature, drew criticism at Saturday’s event when Cooper referenced her in his own speech.

“The loss of a few seats in the legislature and a party-flipping legislator gave the Republicans a super-majority,” Cooper told the crowd. “So, we knew that an abortion ban in some form was coming.”

The crowd erupted into boos at Cooper’s mention of Cotham.

Cotham switched parties in April. This month, after previously being an outspoken supporter for abortion rights, she voted for Senate Bill 20.

“After extensive review, I believe this bill strikes a reasonable balance on the abortion issue and represents a middle ground that anyone not holding one of the two extremist positions can support,” she wrote in a statement explaining her vote.