Shapiro to headline Harris’ abortion rights campaign event in Philadelphia on Sunday

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro will kick off Vice President Kamala Harris’ “Fight for Reproductive Freedom” campaign bus tour in Philadelphia at 11 a.m.

The popular Democratic Party governor will headline the event in Old City along with Hadley Duvall, Kentucky reproductive rights advocate whose stepfather sexually abused her and impregnated her when she was a child. Duvall has visited all over the country.

Sunday’s rally will be the first event Shapiro has listed as a primary event for Harris since the vice president passed him over as his running mate in favor of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but he has been a regular presence on the campaign trail and a primary surrogate for her in recent weeks.

The governor expressed support for Harris last month at a rally in Philadelphia. where she introduced Walz as her vice presidential candidate and later gave a prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. This week, he was one of the prominent Democrats in the spin room for Harris during Tuesday’s debate, and tellingly, he was the only Pennsylvania resident.

Sunday’s event kicks off the Pennsylvania leg of Harris’ nationwide campaign bus tour focused on one of the Democrats’ top issues, reproductive rights. The campaign plans to visit more than a dozen Pennsylvania locations next week and said it hopes to reach voters of both parties with the effort.

“Our campaign is hitting the road to meet voters in their communities and highlight how important reproductive freedom is in this election,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

The November 5 election will be the first presidential election since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade In 2022, states introduced abortion bans.

Harris has promised to restore federal abortion protections and during Tuesday’s debate aggressively challenged former President Donald Trump’s record as president, who appointed three of the six justices who issued the ruling.

Harris cited stories of women who were denied medical care for miscarriages or life-threatening pregnancies because of state laws, as well as cases of children who became pregnant through incest and were forced to cross state lines to obtain abortions.

“I think Americans believe that certain freedoms, especially the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body, should not be enforced by the government,” she said.