During her speech at the Democratic National Committee summer meeting over the weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris called pro-life politicians “extremists.”
“The United States Supreme Court just took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America,” Harris said. “And now, these extremist, so-called leaders are passing laws to criminalize healthcare providers and punish women. They believe that government should make personal decisions for women — that government should make decisions for women about their own body. Well, we do not. We trust women.”
This assessment is wrong. It’s Harris’s side in this debate that’s extreme.
Liberal, pro-choice politicians such as Harris take positions on abortion that are not only wildly out of step with public opinion but also the rest of the world.
For example, just seven countries permit elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. This list includes the United States, as well as China and North Korea. Like the leaders of those countries, Harris supports no gestational limit on abortion. In the 2020 election cycle, Tulsi Gabbard was the only Democratic primary presidential candidate who vocally supported a gestational limit on abortion (and even she just wanted to ban elective third-trimester abortions, which are fewer than 1% of abortions).
Harris maintains her position, even though most Americans support a gestational limit more similar to European countries. Those countries typically have gestational limits of about 12 to 14 weeks; 47 of the 50 European countries ban elective abortion at or before 15 weeks. And 72% of the public supports a 15-week abortion ban, according to a July Harvard-Harris poll.
Harris also supports using federal funds to pay for elective abortions, which the Hyde Amendment outlawed in the 1970s. It’s a provision that every president since Jimmy Carter had supported until President Joe Biden took the White House. It’s also a popular law: 58% oppose public funding for elective abortions, according to a 2021 Marist poll.
And as a member of the U.S. Senate, Harris voted against born-alive protections for human beings who survive an attempted abortion. Born-alive survivors are not hypothetical. When they receive the emergency medical care they need, they can survive — and they have names such as Melissa Ohden, Gianna Jessen, and countless others. Born-alive protections are something that 77% of Americans support, according to a 2019 Susan B. Anthony list poll.
Harris is also on the side of pro-choice liberal politicians who oppose bans on sex-selective abortions, which predominantly occur due to son preference in some cultures. Only 19 House Democrats voted (unsuccessfully) to ban it in 2012; 168 voted against the ban. The public finds this practice abhorrent: 77% want to outlaw it, according to a 2012 Charlotte Lozier Institute poll.
Harris is even on the team that thinks that skull-crushing, partial-birth abortions should be legal: The Biden administration’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra voted against banning the practice in 2003.
Plus, pro-choice liberals in cities such as Boston, Portland, and Pittsburgh have granted city employees paid abortion leave. In Boston, the city council voted unanimously on an ordinance that offers the same benefits for abortion as childbirth: up to 12 weeks of paid time off for both women and men. Not to mention, federally, the Support Through Loss Act would enact paid abortion leave nationwide.
Harris can complain about pro-lifers all she wants, but she needs to acknowledge reality: She is on the side of the real extremists.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
