Vice President Kamala Harris paid a visit to a Minnesota Planned Parenthood on Thursday, becoming the first sitting president or vice president to visit a reproductive healthcare clinic that performs abortion services.
Minnesota, which enshrined abortion access through its state Supreme Court nearly 30 years ago, has become a safe haven for out-of-state patients forced to travel for the procedure. Abortion is currently illegal (North Dakota and South Dakota) or restricted (Iowa and Wisconsin) in its bordering states.
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — the ruling that legalized abortion nationwide since 1973 — setting off a wave of legislative restrictions and bans across the country, as well as a number of electoral victories for pro-choice candidates.
The vice president said the purpose of her visit was to draw attention to the “very serious health crisis” facing women in anti-choice states, “most of whom are frankly silently suffering.”
“How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interests,” Harris said at a St. Paul Planned Parenthood. “We have to be a nation that trusts women.”
“We who have the ability to have a bouquet of microphones in front of us, as I do — I take on, then, the responsibility of uplifting these stories,” she added.
Minnesota Democrats Gov. Tim Walz and Rep. Betty McCollum joined Harris at the clinic.
The Planned Parenthood visit was the final stop of Harris’ “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” series of events, which began in January and included previous visits to Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Harris also had a message to the roughly two dozen protesters who were outside the facility on Thursday.
“Please do understand that when we talk about clinics such as this, it is absolutely about healthcare and reproductive healthcare,” Harris said. “So everyone get ready for the language: Uterus. That part of the body needs a lot of medical care from time to time. Issues like fibroids. We can handle this. Breast cancer screenings. Contraceptive care.”
