Kamala Harris with a Supporter by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr
CV NEWS FEED // Vice President Kamala Harris this week dismissed complaints that the Biden administration supports legal abortion up until birth as “ridiculous” but refused to name a single regulation of abortion she would support.
During a Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” hostess Margaret Brennan repeatedly pressed Harris to specify her “pro-choice” stance.
“What week of pregnancy should abortion access be cut off?” Brennan asked.
“We need to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade,” Harris replied. She did not name a week of pregnancy.
“Let me be very clear,” Harris continued:
From day one, the president has been clear, I have been clear. We need to put back the protections that are in Roe v. Wade into law. Since the Supreme Court took it, Congress has the power and ability to pass legislation to put those protections back in law and Joe Biden will sign that bill. So, that is what we want.
Brennan again asked Harris to name “which week of pregnancy.”
The vice president again refused to answer. “We need to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade,” she said. “We’re not trying to, we’re not trying to do anything that did not exist before June of last year.”
Brennan pointed out that it was important for Harris to clarify when she believed abortion should be legal because her failure to do so might suggest that she supports no limits on abortions at all. “Republicans say the lack of a precise date in cutting it off — you know this — they say that allows Democrats to perform abortions up until, you know, birth,” Brennan said.
Harris dismissed the notion that she and her party support abortion up until birth as “ridiculous.” Yet, again, she refused to say if she supported any gestational limits.
“I believe that we should put the protections of Roe v. Wade into law,” Harris repeated:
And the way that will happen is if we have a United States Congress, who regardless of their personal view for themselves or their family, would agree that the women of America should be trusted to make decisions about their life and their body based on what they know to be in their best interest. It’s that simple.
Harris is not the first high-profile Democrat to dismiss the idea that she supports abortion on demand until birth while at the same time refusing to endorse any abortion regulations.
Last month, Biden’s former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed on X (formerly known as Twitter) that “No one supports abortion up until birth.”
Several X users replied with follow-up questions, asking Psaki to identify what limits she supported. She made no further comment.
