Mrs. Harris desires enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal legislation now that the Supreme Court docket has struck it down.
“When I’m president of america, I’ll signal laws restoring and defending reproductive freedom in each state,” she stated. written in JulyTo take action, she would want not solely a Democratic majority in Congress, but in addition 50 senators keen to cast off the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to cross most laws.
Harris stated final yr that she and President Biden have been contemplating laws modeled on Roe. As amended by Deliberate Parenthood v. Casey, Roe broadly protected abortion rights till a fetus may survive outdoors the womb, however allowed bans after that time offered there have been exceptions for medical emergencies. “We’re not making an attempt to do one thing that didn’t exist earlier than June of final yr,” she stated. told CBS News.
As a senator, she was a sponsor of a invoice known as the Girls’s Well being Safety Act that might have gone a step additional than Roe by banning sure state-level restrictions, corresponding to requiring medical doctors to carry out particular checks or have hospital admitting privileges to carry out abortions. She reiterated her assist for the invoice. in 2022.
She too arguedwhen she was working for president in 2019, that states with a historical past of proscribing abortion rights in violation of Roe needs to be topic to “preclearance” for brand new abortion legal guidelines, that means these legal guidelines must be accepted by the federal authorities earlier than they might go into impact. Her marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for affirmation on whether or not she would nonetheless assist that proposal if Congress codified Roe. (With out such codification, the proposal is moot.)
Within the absence of majorities in Congress able to codifying Roe, Mr. Biden’s cupboard has taken administrative steps to attempt to restrict the results of state abortion bansand Mrs. Harris has noted support for these actions.
The Division of Well being and Social Providers told hospitals in 2022 {that a} legislation referring to emergency companies, the Emergency Medical Care and Labor Actrequires medical doctors to carry out an abortion in the event that they imagine it’s essential to stabilize a affected person. (The directive is topic to authorized challenges that the Supreme Court docket has up to now not dominated on.) refused to govern.) In April, the identical division introduced a rule to guard the medical data of many abortion sufferers from investigators and prosecutors.
