U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., left, Maya Harris, center, and U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., right, speak at a stop on the Harris-Walz Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour in Flint, Mich., on Sept. 23, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)
Maya Harris decried “unconscionable” consequences for Black maternal health as a result of restrictions on reproductive health care in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Harris, the sister of Vice President Kamala Harris, was leading a roundtable in Flint that also included speakers such as U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, (D-CA), and Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Michigan President Paula Thornton Greear during a stop on the Harris-Walz campaign’s Fighting for Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour.
Harris said that the fight for reproductive rights is not only about abortion, but covers everything related to “the freedom to decide whether and when to have a child, and also the freedom to give birth safely and to raise healthy families in communities with clean air and water.”
Latorya Beasley, U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., Planned Parenthood of Michigan President Paula Thornton Greear, Mothering Justice founder Danielle Atkinson and Nancy Davis at a stop on the Harris-Walz Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour in Flint, Mich., on Sept. 23, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)
That includes things like in vitro fertilization, Harris said, criticizing U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, (R-OH), for skipping a Senate vote on a bill to protect access to the procedure.
“Make no mistake that Trump abortion bans don’t just make it harder for us to access abortion, they make it more dangerous to even give birth,” Harris said.
Black women are about three times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable.
“Black mothers deserve to start families on their own terms, and they deserve to live,” Greear said. “These are not just numbers. These are not just statistics. These are real people.”
The issues are exacerbated by healthcare providers leaving states with restrictions on abortion, said Underwood, who was a registered nurse before being elected to Congress.
“What’s more, Trump is driving away our health providers,” Underwood said. “We already knew that around the country, it’s so difficult for some women to be able to find a provider that they trust, and now, with these Trump abortion bans in effect, applications to OBGYN residency programs in states that have an abortion ban have fallen by 10% already in the last two years. With states that have limited access to abortion, people aren’t even applying to these key programs. That means we’re not going to have the health care providers trained in these lifesaving procedures.”
U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., left, and Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, right, speak at a stop on the Harris-Walz Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour in Flint, Mich., on Sept. 23, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist drew a link between the Black maternal health crisis and the Flint Water Crisis, calling restrictions on reproductive healthcare “another government created public health crisis.”
While restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade, as Harris has vowed to do if elected, would require 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, Butler said that a large showing for Democrats in the November general election would be “determinative in showing our Republican counterparts that they are standing in the way of the will of the American people.”
“I think the Republican Party is going to be tired of losing after this election,” Butler said.
However, if Democrats remain unable to find support from any Republican senators to codify Roe, Butler said it may be necessary to make procedural changes to the way the Senate operates.
“I think that the filibuster has been a tool used to hold back legislation and progress in this country across so many different things,” Butler said. “Reproductive freedom, restoring voting rights; these are issues that, again, the American people have spoken very clearly on, and I think it’d be wise for my colleagues, particularly in the Senate, to be better listeners after this November.”
Regardless of the path they take to get there, Underwood said Democrats have clear end goals that they are united behind.
“The Black maternal health crisis, the fight for our reproductive freedom, this is not cancer,” Underwood said. “We are not searching for some cure that doesn’t exist. We are talking about ending preventable maternal death.”