Kamala Harris likens end of Roe v. Wade to slavery

Vice President Kamala Harris likened the end of Roe v. Wade to slavery by saying that the Supreme Court’s ruling was an example of the United States government ‘trying to claim ownership over human bodies.’

Harris made the comparison while speaking at the Essence Festival in New Orleans on Saturday. 

‘We have to recognize we’re a nation that was founded on certain principles that are — that are grounded in the concept of freedom and liberty,’ she told the crowd.  

‘We also know that we’ve had a history in this country of government trying to claim ownership over human bodies. And we had supposedly evolved from that time and that way of thinking. So this is very problematic on so many levels.’ 

Although she didn’t explicitly reference the horrors of slavery, Harris is widely-believed to have been referring to the United States’ grim past of buying and selling black people.  

Vice President Kamala Harris likened the end of Roe v. Wade to slavery by saying that the Court’s ruling was an example of the US ‘trying to claim ownership over human bodies’

Her remarks were made eight days after the highest court overturned the 1973 landmark ruling, which had guaranteed nationwide abortion access for nearly 50 years. 

At least 26 states are now set to enact partial or total bans on abortion, with Democrat-run areas offering to act as ‘sanctuaries’ for women from states where bans have been imposed to come and receive free terminations.  

On June 24, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 striking down a historic ruling that has been upheld for nearly a half a century, permitting abortions during the first two trimesters of pregnancy in the United States.   

Now, states have the authority to ban or restrict abortions. 

Some states have already proceeded with plans to do so, including Florida, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina, while other state officials are attempting to reestablish the right to the procedure. 

 ‘This is a serious matter,’ Harris told the crowd at the festival, during a fireside conversation alongside actress Keke Palmer.

‘And it requires all of us to speak up, to speak out, and to be active,’ she added. 

The VP spoke out against the court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in a speech last Friday after the ruling was announced.

Thirteen states passed trigger laws to restrict or ban abortion in the event Roe v. Wade was overturned 

NEW YORK: Pro-abortion protesters are pictured demonstrating in Manhattan on July 2 

 LOS ANGELES: In Los Angeles, one protestor covers herself in red paint expressing her outrage with the high court’s abortion ban

‘Millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the healthcare and reproductive care that they had this morning,’ Harris told the crowd.

‘Without access to the same healthcare or reproductive healthcare that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years.’

‘Today’s decision on that theory, then, calls into question other rights that we thought were settled,’ she added, pointing to interracial and same-sex marriage.