PHILADELPHIA- With a little more than a month and a half until the presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is stepping up its push for abortion access, with Gov. Josh Shapiro on hand to kick off a statewide “Fight for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour in Philadelphia on Sunday.
“When Donald Trump was in office, we know he brought a lot more chaos to this country and a lot less freedom,” Shapiro said. He criticized the GOP presidential candidate for appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, and bragging about it.
The November election will be the first time Americans will vote for a presidential candidate since Roe v. Wade was overturned. In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, but after the Dobbs ruling overturned Roe, more than a dozen states introduced restrictive abortion bans.
Shapiro also called out Asset‘S Sunday Post on Truth Social which said, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
The singer had expressed her support for Harris several days earlier.
“Attacking Taylor Swift, especially in her home state of Pennsylvania, is not a smart move,” Shapiro said. Another “stupid move,” he added, was “taking away the freedom of millions of women” as a result of the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe.
“Because let me tell you something,” Shapiro said. “Women are going to vote in this election.”
Sunday’s rally, which drew about 200 people to the Independence Visitors Center in Old City, was the first stop on a bus tour that will visit Montgomery County, Allentown, Scranton, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh in the coming days. The reproductive rights bus tour has already traveled through Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.
Shapiro also boasted about his record on abortion rights, pointing to his administration’s support for over-the-counter birth control pills and termination of the state agreement with “Real Alternatives” anti-abortion centers.
Shapiro said in July that his administration would not defend the state law in court. which prohibits the employ of Medicaid funds for abortions.
“At every turn, we have made it clear to our opponents in the legislature not to send me bills that undermine freedom in Pennsylvania because they will be met with a quick veto by my office,” he said.
Harris slams Trump on abortion rights, race in tense presidential debate
Shapiro said states are “on the front lines” on the abortion issue, adding that western Pennsylvania has seen a “drastic increase” in the number of people seeking abortions there, with women coming from neighboring West Virginia and Ohio, which have more restrictive abortion laws.
But Shapiro said that “there’s only so much we can do here if Donald Trump gets the keys to the White House,” accusing Trump and his vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), of wanting to sign a nationwide abortion ban.
Shapiro was interviewed by CNN on Sunday morning after an interview with Vance in which the Ohio senator was pressed about unverified claims about Haitian immigrants. Shapiro said Vance “should be ashamed of himself.”
Trump said earlier he wouldn’t sign a nationwide abortion banbut during the debate with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday, he did not answer whether he would veto such a ban.Vance he refused to say during a televised appearance on Sunday whether Trump will veto the ban or not.
Hadley Duvall, 22, a sexual assault survivor and reproductive rights advocate from Kentucky, spoke at Sunday’s rally, sharing her personal story: She was sexually assaulted by her stepfather when she was 12 and wanted an abortion. Duvall has appeared in election ads for Democrats this cycle, highlighting her record, and was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention. She said Sunday that the stakes are too high to sit out the upcoming election.
“Donald Trump sees nothing wrong with what he did in overturning Roe,” she said. The former president “doesn’t care” about women affected by states enacting abortion bans after the Dobbs decision, she said.
“Trump is bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade. He says he’s proud to be responsible for every abortion ban in the country and he’s called it a beautiful thing,” Duvall said.
“I will ask him over and over again what is so beautiful about forcing a 12-year-old to carry her parent’s child,” she added. “To tell a girl who has already been deprived of her childhood that you are now taking away her future, it is unimaginable, but it happens.”
During Tuesday’s debate, Trump said he supports exceptions to the abortion ban in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk.
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-4th District) called the Harris-Walz bill “the strongest on reproductive freedom that we’ve ever seen in this country.”
“We stand ready to turn the page on Mr. Trump’s chaos and indecency,” Dean added. “We stand ready to turn the page on his mandate of misogyny.”
Dean also supported her fellow Democrats serving in the state’s congressional delegation and mentioned congressional candidates Ashley Ehasz and Janelle Stelson. Ehasz, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-1st District), and Stelson, who is seeking to unseat U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-10th District), have both have made abortion rights a central part of their campaigns.
Shapiro told the Capital-Star that the issue of abortion is a top priority for Pennsylvania voters.
“If you go back and look at elections since Donald Trump has been president, reproductive freedom has been a central issue in almost every race,” Shapiro said. “Whether it’s my race for governor, Senator Fetterman’s race for the U.S. Senate, the race for the Supreme Court here in Pennsylvania, reproductive freedom has been at the center of all of those campaigns, and in every race, the candidates who fought for reproductive freedom have won their race.”
“This is the issue that’s on people’s minds,” he added. “This is the issue that people are voting for, and it’s the issue that Donald Trump is in the wrong place.”
Shapiro added that he believes reproductive rights are not a partisan issue, noting that former Republican congressman Jim Greenwood, who is supporting Harris for president, was also at Sunday’s rally.
Some ABC News/Ipsos poll showed Harris leading Trump by 14 points on who voters trust when it comes to abortion. Trump’s strongest issue in the poll was immigration, where she led Harris by 10 points.
Trump Accuses Harris Campaign of Being Out of Touch with Reality on abortion and has he said abortion policy should be left to the states.
According to major national rating agencies, including Larry Sabato’s Crystal BallThe 19 electoral votes make it a key prize for the election winner.
