PHOENIX — Vice President Kamala Harris stood at a podium in Phoenix on Friday telling audience members why she became a prosecutor focusing on crimes of violence against women and children.
It was her best friend in high school, a survivor of sexual assault, who inspired Harris to fight for women and for reproductive freedoms — a fight she continued at South Mountain Community Center Friday during her "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour.
"The idea that someone who survives a crime of violence to their body, a violation of their body, would then be told they don't have the authority to make a decision about what happens to their body next? That is immoral," Harris said. "That is immoral."
Phoenix is the fifth stop on Harris' tour and the fourth time she has visited Arizona since being sworn into office. The tour kicked off in Big Bend, Wisconsin in late January.
“Let us all agree, one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling her what to do with her body,” Harris said as the crowd applauded.
During her speech, Harris spoke of clinics in Alabama, forced to pause invitro fertilization when the court ruled frozen embryos were children, and the “irony” she sees from “extremists.”
“Women and couples denied the ability to fulfill their dream of having a child,” Harris said. “On the one hand, these extremists tell women they do not have the freedom to end an unwanted pregnancy, and on the other hand, these extremists tell women they don’t have the freedom to start a family.”
One in three women of reproductive age live in a state with an abortion ban, Harris said, including in Arizona, where a 15-week abortion ban is in effect, and further restrictions are before the Arizona Supreme Court.
“This is in fact a health care crisis,” Harris said. “There is nothing hypothetical about this moment.”
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, Rep. Greg Stanton, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona Angela Florez were also in attendance. Florez introduced Harris.
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