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Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are both calling for Democrats to take extreme measures to protect abortion rights after the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, but Vice President Kamala Harris signaled the Biden administration is not considering such action at the moment.
Both Warren and Ocasio-Cortez, Democrats from Massachusetts and New York respectively, lobbied for the administration to set up what they called ’emergency abortion clinics’ on federal lands.
Warren, speaking on ABC’s This Week, said Biden should ‘make abortion as available as possible with the tools he has, including medication abortion, including using federal lands as a place where abortions can occur.’
Ocasio-Cortez echoed these requests at a rally in New York City’s Union Square, calling federal abortion clinics ‘the babiest of baby steps.’
However, when asked about the possibility of doing so, Vice President Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash that it was unlikely.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are both calling for Democrats to take extreme measures to expand abortion rights after the reversal of Roe vs. Wade
Ocasio-Cortez echoed these requests at a rally in New York City’s Union Square, calling federal abortion clinics ‘the babiest of baby steps’
When asked about the possibility of doing so, Vice President Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash that it was unlikely
‘I think that what is most important right now is that we ensure that the restrictions the states are trying to put up that would prohibit a woman from exercising what we still maintain is her right, that we do everything that we can to empower women to not only seek but receive the care where it is available.
When pushed further by Bash, Harris left the possibility open but seemed quick to pivot to suggest that it might not be in Democrats best electoral interests ahead of the midterms.
‘It’s not right now what we are discussing but I will say that when I think about what is happening in terms of the states, we have to also recognize that we are 130-odd days away from an election, which is gonna include Senate races. The court has acted, now Congress needs to act.’
She specifically cited races in Georgia, North Carolina and Colorado as places where Dems could either hold or make gains to their tiny Senate majority (a 50-50 tie in which Harris is entitled to the tie-breaking vote) that would allow them to codify Roe into law.
When asked what the Biden administration can do, Harris suggested they will expand access to abortion medication.
‘Forcing women to carry pregnancies against their will, will kill them,’ Ocasio-Cortez said on NBC’s Meet the Press program
Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said her state, one of 13 conservative states with ‘trigger’ abortion bans now in effect or soon to activate, will stick to its prohibition on mailed abortion pills
On the various Sunday shows, both Warren and Ocasio-Cortez were unequivocal in stating that the administration had to do more.
‘Forcing women to carry pregnancies against their will, will kill them,’ Ocasio-Cortez said on NBC’s Meet the Press program.
Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams urged Democrats in Congress to codify Roe v. Wade into law by casting aside the U.S. Senate filibuster rule that enabled Republicans to block such an effort last month.
‘We know that the rights to choose should not be divvied up amongst states, and that the sinister practice of taking constitutional rights and allowing each state to decide the quality of your citizenship is wrong,’ Abrams told CNN’s State of the Union.
‘I would reject the notion that this is the will of the people,’ she said in a separate interview on Fox News Sunday.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who has filed a lawsuit to stop a severe 1931 state abortion ban from being enforced after the fall of Roe v. Wade, called on the Biden administration to take every possible step to preserve reproductive rights
‘I am urging every pro-choice leader to use every tool in their toolbox. So I’m hopeful and I believe that the Biden administration is going to do that,’ Whitmer told CBS
Democrats also urged Biden to defend women’s access to a pill used for medical abortion, against state efforts to ban its availability, a major new legal fight that his administration indicated it would take on.
Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem said her state, one of 13 conservative states with ‘trigger’ abortion bans now in effect or soon to activate, will stick to its prohibition on mailed abortion pills.
‘What the Supreme Court said was that the Constitution does not give a woman the right to have an abortion. That means that at each state they will make the decision how they handle these situations,’ Noem told CBS’ Face the Nation. ‘I love that about this country, that we have a very limited federal government,’ she said.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who has filed a lawsuit to stop a severe 1931 state abortion ban from being enforced after the fall of Roe v. Wade, called on the Biden administration to take every possible step to preserve reproductive rights.
‘I am urging every pro-choice leader to use every tool in their toolbox. So I’m hopeful and I believe that the Biden administration is going to do that,’ Whitmer told CBS.
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