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As both senator and presidential candidate, Harris’ voting record and public statements blatantly show disregard for the value of human life. In 2019, Harris came out in favor of codifying the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade, which allowed women unrestricted access to abortion.
Codifying Roe v Wade would take the question of safe and legal abortion out of the Supreme Court’s hands by passing legislation in Congress that guarantees women in every state the right to unfettered access to abortion care. This would protect the right to choose even in the event that Roe v Wade is overturned.1
Furthermore, in May 2019, Kamala Harris co-sponsored Bill S 1645, also known as the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would allow women unrestricted access to abortion. The purpose of the bill is “to protect a woman’s ability to determine whether and when to bear a child or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide reproductive health care services, including abortion services."2 The bill’s intent is to remove what pro-choice supporters consider to be burdensome or difficult constraints to abortion access, such as preventing doctors prescribing medications they deem appropriate, restrictions on medical training for future abortion providers, requirements concerning the physical layout of clinics where abortions are performed, and forced waiting periods for patients.3
Kamala Harris has expressed her desire to see the Hyde Amendment of 1976 overturned. The Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for an abortion, except in extraordinary circumstances, such as rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. During a presidential debate, Harris stated that “the Hyde Amendment has punished low-income women and women of color for too long,” and would like to see the restriction of Medicaid funding for abortion overturned.4
In a disturbing statistic, in more than a dozen states, it is currently not illegal for doctors not to provide medical care for a child who survives an abortion. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, sponsored by Senate Republican Ben Sasse, states that a health care practitioner who is present must (1) exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to another child born alive at the same gestational age, and (2) immediately admit the child to a hospital.5 Shockingly, the bill failed to pass, and one of the Senators who voted against it was Kamala Harris.
Finally, it has been widely circulated in the media that Kamala Harris supports abortion up until the moment of birth. This is not entirely accurate, as Harris has never explicitly stated that she supports abortion at this stage. This is what she did say: “I think it’s up to a woman to make that decision, and I will always stand by that […] I think she needs to make that decision with her doctor, with her priest, with her spouse.”6 Again, Harris makes it clear that in her mind the mother’s choice is undeniably more important than the well-being of the child.
As Mother Teresa once said, "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." Indeed, it’s a sad commentary on life when a nation condones, or silently tolerates, the killing of unborn children. It’s even more atrocious when someone who is running for America’s second-highest office vociferously champions its cause.
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