For our country. we were founded on the notion that government, should at some point stay out of people s business. yep. to say it in an academic way. the legal. the legal matter, right. and when we think about this and connect this with so many other issues, i think we all have to stand up and say that, you know, we as a nation stand for the principle of freedom. if i may, i ll share with you another way to think of this. i ve now, as vice president, met with over 100 world leaders, presidents, prime ministers, chancellors and kings. when we, as the united states of america, walk in those rooms, we walk in with the authority to talk about the importance of democracy. of individual rights. human rights. rule of law. and in that way we are a role
States. it s a powerful, political issue even when people have a morale opposition. yes. the 2022 campaigns taught us we are more unified on this issue than divided. a lot of conservatives were saying this is about returning the issue to the states. we need to let the states decide. the states are starting to speak. when you give voters the opportunity to vote directly on this issue, they will vote to protect reproductive freedom every time. especially in states like kansas and kentucky, that doesn t mean just democratic voters that means republican voters, independent voters. i think it s really powerful just to see that whether it s a partisan issue in the halls of congress, in our state legislatures but in people s everyday lives it s not a partisan issue, it s a personal fundamental freedom issue, and
And shannon brewer are still with me. joining the conversation is annie runo and rachel sweet. i want to start with you madame vice president because you were headed to north carolina. yes. which recently overrode the veto of the governor who attempted to stop an abortion ban. why north carolina and what are you hoping to achieve there? i ll be there for the one-year mark of the dobbs decision, which is this saturday, in four days, to again discuss and be right there at a ground zero. why this is an issue that all americans should care about, independent of the choices they would personally make for themselves. this is fundamentally about freedom. the right to make decisions about your own life and your own body. this is a foundational principal
Voting and they are making it harder and harder, constantly passing different laws in each state to make it harder for certain people to vote, which are the people who are being affected by this the most. so we need to be fighting in these states for your voting rights. that s important. people didn t think that was important before and i think they re starting to realize it. as i speak to people now, they seem to realize that it starts on that state level and that s how it becomes so big. and you ve got to tackle it while it s on that state level. yeah. you know, it s i couldn t agree with you more. and actually, if you do just a quick analysis of which states from which states are you saying attacks on the freedom to make decisions about your own body. the freedom to have access to the ballot box. the freedom to love and marry who you love and be open about that, you will see a significant
Their communities and something we know to be true, generations of people know, we know now, you cannot ban abortion. you can only ban safe abortion. that s right. people are still going to seek care, and that s only going to get more and more dangerous. absolutely. donate to their local abortion fund so we can fly texans to new mexico and get the care that they need. and you re going to keep fighting? we re just going to keep opening clinics. every time they close down open another one. but we ve opened three in a year s time, and we re just determined that women are going to have access no matter what. amen. freedom is very hard to take away from people, vice president harris. it makes people focus. they re focused. yeah. how is the administration going to respond to this moment? right. well, on the mifepristone issue, for example, we are fighting in the courts. we re going to keep fighting, because we also know that the majority of folks who receive
Model. we ve held ourselves out to be a role model. when you re a role model, everybody here at this table knows, people watch what you do to see if it matches up to what you say. people around the world are watching here. my greatest here is for women fighting for basic rights in various countries that their so-called leaders, autocrats and dictators will say you want to hold out the united states as an example. look what they re doing. you be quiet. this issue, in addition to affecting real people every day as we have discussed, also calls into play our commitment to a foundational concept, which is that of freedom. and you know, annie, we have a fundamental principle here that is also separation of church and state. we know for people who oppose abortion for a lot of them it is
Fights for civil rights must be fought and won with each generation. and the point if we are not vigilant we might see the rights go away so we must be vigilant every day. and this is so fundamentally about freedom. freedom. the freedom and the ability of an individual to make decisions about their own life and literally their own body. i think there s a piece of this also underlying it all is hey, trust women. trust them to know what is in their best interest. what are we saying that a bunch of people in the state capital, in washington d.c. are in a better position to make the decision for her than she is in terms of what is in her best interest? the best interest of her family? especially when we consider the
Health care crisis where we are literally at a place where politicians are urging lawyers by the way, they form shopped in finding that judge are trying to replace the decisions of medical professionals about a medication that is prescribed and is safe and effective for its use. the implications are frightening. so we re fighting this at the moment state by state. it could soon be national. let s start with state by state, rachel. you are headed to ohio. yeah. how do we do this state by state? i m really honored to be working with the team over at ohio reproductive freedom, please check out their website. as we were discussing before the break, abortion measures went five for five in 2022. if americans are given the issue, they will stand united and protect the right to abortion. the problem is our opposition