Vice President Kamala Harris deflected questions about the specific abortion restrictions she would accept as president, instead redirecting the conversation back to claims that former President Donald Trump has denied, alleging that he would enact an abortion ban.
“I support Roe v. Wade being put back into law by Congress and to restore the fundamental right of women to make decisions about their own body,” Harris told CBS Sunday Morning. “It is that basic.”
When pressed again by anchor Norah O’Donnell, Harris pivoted the conversation, saying they would not even be “debating” restrictions if former President Donald Trump had not nominated three justices to the Supreme Court that decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the majority opinions of which repealed the Roe abortion precedent.
O’Donnell also pushed Harris on her claims that Trump would introduce a federal abortion ban, despite his counter-claims that he would not. In response, Harris referred O’Donnell to Project 2025, policy proposals from conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, which the former president had distanced himself from.
“He says everything. Come on. Are we really taking his word for it?” the vice president said. “He said that women should be punished. He has been all over the place on this, but I’m too busy watching what he’s doing to see what he has said.”
When O’Donnell reiterated that Trump has dismissed Project 2025 after Harris cited the Heritage Foundation’s entitlement program positions, the vice president similarly demurred.
“I am a former prosecutor. His DNA is all over it. All over it,” she said.
Last week, Harris was specifically asked about religious exemptions, a concession that could help her pass the Women’s Health Protection Act through Congress if she is elected president on Nov. 5 because she will need Republican votes.
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“I don’t think we should be making concessions when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” the vice president told NBC.
“I’m not gonna engage in hypotheticals because we could go on a variety of scenarios,” she said. “Let’s just start with a fundamental fact, a basic freedom has been taken from the women of America: the freedom to make decisions about their own body. And that cannot be negotiable, which is that we need to put back in the protections of Roe v Wade. And that is it.”