Sen. Kamala Harris took aim at Republicans over abortion access during the fourth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 election season.
During a round of questions on healthcare, the senator from California pointed out that the conversation hadn’t yet touched specifically on the topic of women’s reproductive care.
“This is the sixth debate we have had in this presidential cycle,” she said. “Not nearly one word with all of these discussions about health care, on women’s access to reproductive health care. It’s outrageous.”
Harris went on to slam states that have recently passed restrictive abortion laws, arguing that their Republican state legislatures are “out of touch with America” and are willing to let “women die.”
“There are states that have passed laws that will virtually prevent women from having access to reproductive health care,” she said. “It is not an exaggeration to say women will die. Poor women, women of color will die because these Republican legislatures in these various states, who are out of touch with America, are telling women what to do with their bodies.”
She added, “Women are the majority of the population in this country. People need to keep their hands off of women’s bodies and let women make the decisions about their own lives.”
Several pro-life states have passed laws drastically limiting when a woman can have an abortion. Georgia, for example, passed a “heartbeat bill” banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The move, however, has since been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
Harris has pledged to address such laws as president, arguing that she’d require states to get federal approval before strict abortion laws could go into effect.
