Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday visited an abortion clinic in Minnesota on Thursday, a first for a president or vice president in U.S. history as the White House and President Joe Biden's reelection effort are continuing a full-court press on the issue of abortion.

“We are facing a very serious health crisis. And the crisis is affecting many many people in our country, most of whom are frankly silently suffering,” Harris said at a St. Paul, Minn., Planned Parenthood clinic. “I've heard stories of and have met with women who had miscarriages… women who are being denied emergency care because the health care providers there at an emergency room were afraid that because of the laws in their state that they could be criminalized, sent to prison for providing health care.”

The visit is part of Harris' "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour, which has taken the vice president across the country to highlight the impact of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Harris, the administration's point person on reproductive rights since the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, kicked off her tour earlier this year in the battleground state of Wisconsin and has since visited swing states Georgia, Michigan and Arizona, as well as California.

“My role is to do what I just did, which is to articulate exactly these points, and to continue to articulate them, and to organize folks around what I know is an issue that is impacting more people than you ever really know,” Harris said on Thursday. “What we want is to put back in place the protections that the Supreme Court took away, which is to codify, put into law the protections of Roe v. Wade. That's what we want.”

Harris' visit is believed to be the first time a president or vice president has visited a reproductive health clinic, according to her office.

“I am a proud abortion provider. And I'm honored that Vice President Kamala Harris has visited our clinic today. It's a historic moment, and one that demonstrates how critically important access to reproductive health care is,” said Sarah Texler, the chief medical officer at the facility. “In 2024 and beyond, we will keep fighting, we will keep working until we live in a world where everyone can access the care they decide is best for their futures and their bodies and in their own community.”

Texler said their clinic has seen an 100% increase from out-of-state patients seeking abortion care since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. She placed blame on nearby states restricting abortion access, as well as states across the country.

“I've cared for patients from everywhere from nearby states like South Dakota and North Dakota and Wisconsin, but from faraway states like Texas, Alabama, Wyoming, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri, and the list goes on,” she said. “Our new abortion landscape is difficult. It is dangerous. and it is putting my patients and healthcare providers at severe risk.”

Minnesota has become somewhat of an abortion sanctuary in the Midwest, with limits on the procedure in neighboring Wisconsin and Iowa and outright bans in North Dakota and South Dakota. Clinics in the state experienced a surge in out-of-state patients in the aftermath of Roe being overturned.

Harris toured the facility with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Democrats and abortion rights advocates have scored key victories in elections nationwide. Democrats credit the issue with a stronger-than-expected showing in the midterm elections in 2022, and voters in six states have overwhelmingly ballot initiatives to enshrine abortion rights, including deep red states like Kansas and Ohio. A vast majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or some circumstances, according to a Gallup survey.

It's a message that they are continuing to push in the lead-up to November's presidential election, which will once again see Biden square off against former President Donald Trump after both men clinched their respective parties' nominations earlier this week.

In Biden's State of the Union address last week, he sought to appeal to women voters while casting blame on the Supreme Court and Trump, who appointed three conservative justices who were part of the majority's decision, for overturning Roe v. Wade.

"In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court majority wrote the following ... 'Women are not without electoral or political power,'" Biden said in his remarks. "You’re about to realize just how much you were right about that. Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women. But they found out."

"When reproductive freedom was on the ballot, we won in 2022 and 2023, and we’ll win again in 2024," If you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again."

On Wednesday, first lady Jill Biden teamed up with singer Christina Aguilera in a social media video urging voters to support abortion rights in November.

“I will not let my daughter live in a world where politicians make decisions about her body," Aguilera said in the video.

On Thursday in St. Paul, Harris made a similar case that this November will be vital in the fight over reproductive health access.

“There's a fundamental point on this issue that I think most people agree with: which is that one does not have to abandon their faith, or deeply held beliefs, to agree the government should not be telling women what to do with their body,” Harris said. “If she chooses, she will consult with her priest, her pastor, her rabbi, her imam. But it's not for the government to tell her what she can and cannot do with her own body.”

Spectrum News' Maddie Gannon contributed to this report.