Kamala Harris describes her “fury” when the Supreme Court revoked abortion rights in powerful convo on hit podcast

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the recently overturned Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that established abortion rights nationwide, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris spoke this weekend on the women’s empowerment podcast Call Her Daddy with host Alex Cooper. Cooper is the highest-paid female podcaster on the Spotify streaming platform, and her show has an estimated 5 million weekly listeners.

“This is a moment for all of us to understand our power as an extension of our rights, and to join together in sisterhood and fellowship among all people, regardless of gender, to speak up,” Harris said after Cooper’s introduction.

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Harris then said that when the Republican-led Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in June 2022, she was traveling to meet Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) to work on the issue of “women unnecessarily dying in connection with childbirth,” an issue that disproportionately kills rural, Black, and Native American women.

“And the decision came down, and I called my husband [Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff] immediately, because he’s about the only person I could call with the furor that I had in a most unrestrained way with language that stood honor to that fury,” Harris said, “[especially about the] hypocrisy of these people who pretend and put themselves out as caring about the sanctity of life, but have been wholly absent those numbers when it comes to the fact that women are dying every day in America in connection with childbirth.”

Harris said that women don’t often share their difficult stories about childbirth because there is an “associated” social judgment that “is designed to make her feel bad or embarrassed or in some way subversive or an outcast” or “as though she did something wrong, and they will therefore silently suffer.”

She then called anti-abortion laws a “violation” of women’s bodily autonomy that sometimes occurs after an initial violation of rape or incest. She noted that doctors in states with abortion bans have withheld lifesaving medical care from pregnant patients for fear of violating Trump abortion bans.

“Here’s the bottom line: government should not be telling people what to do about their own bodies,” Harris said calling the issue one of self-determination, freedom and liberty. “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling her what to do. Let her make that decision with her pastor or rabbi. Let her make that decision, if she chooses, with her loved ones.”

“Individuals should have the right to make decisions about the matters of heart and home,” Harris continued. “So that’s about who you marry. It’s about what you choose to do within the privacy of your home that is not about hurting anyone else, the choices that you rightly should have… the freedom to make, and our homes are our bodies.”

Abortion’s connection to same-sex marriage & foreign diplomacy

Harris then mentioned that after overturning Roe, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said “the quiet part out loud” by saying that the court should possibly overturn previous court decisions guaranteeing the rights to same-sex marriage and contraception. She also noted that, after Thomas’ comment, President Joe Biden signed a federal law guaranteeing federal recognition of same-sex marriage, though the law won’t stop the court from overturning gay marriage or states from banning it.

One of the podcast’s hosts noted, “Bayard Rustin, a queer key strategist in the 1960s civil rights movement, said ‘We are all one, and if we don’t know it, we will learn the hard way,'” and then asked about the connection between abortion restrictions and voter suppression. Harris said that the conservative organizations and Republican activists orchestrating attacks on abortion rights are also advocating for voter restrictions, book bans, and against LGBTQ+ rights.

Harris also noted that she meets with heads of state and foreign leaders on a fairly regular basis, including over 100 presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, and kings.

“We generally have been able to walk in, chin up, shoulders back, talking about the importance of democracy, human rights, rule of law, and in that way, we have presented ourselves as a role model,” she said. However, she said she worries that “autocrats and dictators” in other countries may now point to the U.S. taking away such rights in order to discourage activists fighting for civil rights abroad.

“This issue, the way it has gone down, will impact not only the people of America,” Harris said, “but arguably, people around the world.”

Harris noted that state abortion bans — and the degree to which they criminalize other reproductive healthcare like in vitro fertilization (IVF), which many same-sex couples use to conceive children — reemphasize the importance of engaging with statewide offices like governor, attorney general and legislators. She also emphasized the necessity of using social media to spread information to help people continue accessing care and of joining community organizations as a “joyful warrior” to lift up one another’s “power and strength.”

“The duality of these things is that usually the thing that gives us great strength can also be very fragile, and if we don’t protect it, [it] could go away,” Harris said.

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