Anti-abortion activists were in hysterics Tuesday after Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America released a statement declaring that “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make up the most pro-abortion presidential ticket America has ever seen.”
As if that’s a bad thing. In fact, it’s by design.
Yes, Vice President Harris is unabashedly pro-choice. She’s been the Biden administration’s envoy on reproductive rights issues for the past year—and her message couldn’t be clearer.
I do believe when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for. We stand for the freedom of every American, including the freedom of every person everywhere to make decisions—about their own body, their own health care and their own doctor. So we fight for reproductive rights and legislation that restores the protections of Roe v. Wade. And here’s the thing. The majority of Americans are with us, they agree.
Americans believe in freedom. And we will not allow you to destroy our most basic rights and principles.
Harris’ vice presidential pick Walz is right there with her. As Minnesota governor, he signed a sweeping reproductive rights bill into law in January 2023, ensuring that the state’s existing protections remain in place and out of the reach of future court decisions.
“After last year’s landmark election across this country, we’re the first state to take legislative action to put these protections in place,” Walz proudly announced at the bill signing.
He followed that up in April 2023 by signing three more bills into law, making Minnesota a safe haven for people from other states seeking abortions and gender-affirming care, as well as banning anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy in the state.
“Today, we’re protecting the rights of Minnesotans and making sure our state remains a place where people have the freedom to get the care they need to live their fullest lives,” Walz said at the time.
When the Alabama Supreme Court put access to fertility treatments in jeopardy earlier this year, Walz briefly shared his family’s experience with in vitro fertilization—that’s how he and his wife were able to conceive their children, Hope and Gus—in his state of the state address.
“If you have never personally gone through the hell of infertility, I guarantee you someone you know has,” Walz said during the speech.
In an interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, he talked about that hell and recalled the day his wife called him, crying.
“I said, ‘Not again,’” Walz recalled. “She said, ‘No, I’m pregnant.’ It’s not by chance that we named our daughter Hope.”
Harris has already put Donald Trump’s anti-abortion extremism in the spotlight by calling red-state bans on the procedure “Trump abortion bans.” She has also highlighted the GOP nominees’ hard-line line stances on the issue, from Trump’s openness to prosecuting women who have had abortions to his running mate JD Vance’s opposition to rape and incest exceptions in abortion bans.
Trump and Vance might be trying to run away from their abortion stances, but neither side—the anti-abortion extremists or the Democrats—will be letting that happen. The hard right won’t stop until they get a national abortion ban and the Democrats won’t stop until abortion rights are the law of the land again.
Because that’s what voters want. America is pro-choice, and that will be a crucial issue in this election.
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