Vice President Kamala Harris visits Des Moines to talk about reproductive wellness care

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Des Moines on Thursday to meet with neighborhood leaders and abortion rights advocates to talk about reproductive wellness care amid current action at each the state and federal level that could restrict access to medication made use of for abortion.

Harris’s go to came a day just after a federal judge in Texas heard arguments in a case that could take the drug mifepristone, which is made use of for health-related abortions, off the market place. The Meals and Drug Administration authorized the drug two decades ago.

Harris, who hosted a closed meeting at Grand View University, stated the case threatens the country’s public wellness program as a entire and that the Biden administration is prepared to take action if the case succeeds.

“We take this pretty seriously,” she stated. “We are ready to do what ever we might and can if the court guidelines in a way that is contrary to what we think is in the greatest interests of the public wellness of America.”

The plaintiffs on the case, a group of anti-abortion health-related groups and physicians, sued the FDA claiming it improperly authorized the drug. It could have wide-ranging effects on abortion access as properly as the FDA-approval method going forward if it succeeds.

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, a Democrat from Coralville, speaks at a meeting on reproductive wellness care arranged by Vice President Kamala Harris at Grand View University.

Harris named the case a political move by these pushing an anti-abortion agenda.

“The basic problem at play with that court case is our public wellness program as a entire,” she stated. “If politicians can start off utilizing the court to undo doctor’s choices, picture exactly where that could lead.”

Abortion in Iowa is legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Having said that, a case in search of to reinstate a 2018 so-named “fetal heartbeat” law, that would ban abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy, is anticipated go just before the state Supreme Court subsequent month.

Iowa Republicans have indicated they strategy to wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling to come out just before pursing extra abortion restrictions via legislation.

Meanwhile, pharmacy chain Walgreens announced this month it would quit distributing mifepristone in 21 states – such as Iowa – following legal threats from the states’ attorneys common.

In her comments in Des Moines, Harris criticized the attorneys common for attempting to restrict access to the abortion pill. This consists of Iowa Lawyer Basic Brenna Bird, who took workplace in January.

“At the core of these concerns is a foundational problem for our nation, and it is the principle that we are founded on which says that we every single are entitled to freedom and liberty in its most fundamental manifestation,” Harris stated.