While Joe Biden’s presidential reelection campaign continues to fight out from underneath the weight his poor debate showing against Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris has continued on her tour to draw voters into a big tent advocating for reproductive health and abortion rights. This time, she had a new focus: Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.

On Wednesday, Harris sat down for a discussion in Michigan — her second on reproductive rights this year — with Amanda Stratton, a "conservative, pro-choice woman" and mother, and a self-styled "recovering Republican" in Olivia Troye, who worked in the Trump administration as a national security official.

What You Need To Know

  • Vice President Kamala Harris visited Michigan on Wednesday to discuss reproductive rights with a former Trump administration official and a "conservative, pro-choice" woman who is new to vote for Democrats

  • Harris began her remarks by condemning the assassination attempt on Republican candidate Donald Trump, saying that an exchange of ideas, not violence, is central to American political discourse

  • During the discussion, the vice president drummed on the abortion and in vitro fertilization stances of GOP vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who has advocated for a national ban on abortion

  • Harris also noted that voters have advocated in favor of reproductive rights in every occasion since Roe v. Wade was overturned

Harris began her remarks by expressing her relief that Trump is well in the wake of Saturday’s assassination attempt, calling it a "heinous and cowardly act."

"In the aftermath of this weekend’s shooting, one of the questions we now confront is about the way we should engage with one another in this campaign," Harris said, before echoing Biden’s Sunday night remarks condemning political violence, which she said is "never acceptable."

"At the same time, the hallmark of American democracy — the hallmark of any democracy — is a strong competition of ideas, policies and a vision for the future," Harris said. "And just as we must reject political violence, we must also embrace a robust discussion about what is at stake in this election. The surest way to reaffirm the strength of our democracy is by engaging in a vigorous and civil exchange of ideas."

"I don’t think 10, five or even maybe two years ago, we would have been talking about reproductive rights and elections, because it was seen as too controversial, not a winning issue — and frankly, it seemed like settled law," Troye said. 

"The number of stories that I’ve heard about women, and their partners, their spouses, their families silently suffering," Harris said. A key to her public policy mindset is to consider how a given policy impacts a real human being — in this case, a mother who has become pregnant and needs an abortion, but lives in a state with stringent, restrictive abortion laws. "So think about what we’re saying to her: God help her if she’s got extra money to buy a plane ticket, and for a hotel room…go to a city where she’s never been to recieve this care, only to get back as soon as she can because she’s got to take care of those kids," she said. "Think about what we’re putting people through."

Stratton, a mother who shared her issues with miscarriage and secondary infertility — infertility for pregnancies after the first childbirth — told Harris that she’s found her expereinces to be common, but rarely discussed. And though her question moved away from miscarriage, Harris later circled back to note that the GOP’s vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, has blocked protections for IVF and indicated support for a national ban on abortion.

In a 2022 podcast interview, Vance said that he would "like abortion to be illegal nationally," saying that a state-by-state patchwork of abortion law wouldn’t work. “Let’s say Roe vs. Wade is overruled. Ohio bans abortion, in 2022 or let’s say 2024. And then, you know, every day George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to load up disproportionately black women to get them to go have abortions in California. And of course, the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity."

Vance has since adopted Trump’s stance that abortion is a state-level issue, though he said that a successful voter-driven measure, passed in 2023 to institute a constitutional amendment protecting abortion, was a "gut punch."

When abortion is on the ballot, Harris noted, pro-choice positions tend to win out.

"In my experience traveling the country, I’m going to so-called 'red' and so-called 'blue' and so-called 'purple' states, you look at this when this issue was on the ballot…whenever it was on the ballot, the American people voted for freedom," Harris said. "For the last few years, we’ve seen such division and attempts to divide us — this is a very very serious, pivotal, foundational issue — but what we have seen is when the American people are presented with this issue, regardless of what party they’re registered to vote, they stand for freedom."

Harris closed her conversation with Stratton and Troye by talking about building voter engagement and coalitions.

"You know, again, there are forces trying to divide us. We’ve got to remember in our hearts and help people remember that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us," Harris said. "Sometimes these kinds of omoments have the tendency, if not intention, to make people feel smalla nd make them feel alone and disempower people…You know, I think there's this perversity that has taken place over the last several years, to suggest the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down. When in fact, the true measure of the strength of a leader, I think we all agree is based on who you lift up."