VP Kamala Harris calls on lawmakers to support Gov. Cooper to stop anti-abortion bills
Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday told Gov. Roy Cooper he’s the “last line of defense in the statehouse” for reproductive rights and encouraged attendees of a historically Black fraternity convention to vote for the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate.
The vice president spent the day in Charlotte meeting with local and state leaders about a new affordable internet program and abortion rights.
She promoted the Affordable Connectivity Program, part of the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law, asking the city council members, community leaders and state legislators in attendance to spread the word.
“Talk to everybody who comes up for Sunday dinner and little league games, at work, at school, in your neighborhood,” Harris said. “Talk with folks about what is available to them that they may not otherwise know.”
Harris also led a roundtable discussion with state legislators and abortion service providers about how abortion access can be protected in North Carolina.
Harris’s arrival came the same day President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19. A White House official said Harris tested negative for COVID-19 and she was last with the president on Tuesday.
“He is in good spirits. He is feeling well,” Harris said about Biden.
READ FURTHER: Racial disparities heightened by rise in patients traveling to NC for abortions
Free and affordable internet access
The Affordable Connectivity Program provides eligible households with $30 monthly toward internet bills and up to $75 per month for people on tribal land. Some program participants will receive high-speed internet for free.
During her visit, Harris toured a computer lab at the Carole Hoefener Center uptown where she met with three beneficiaries of the program.
One beneficiary said the initiative could connect seniors to their families and help them with online shopping. The distance caused by pandemic lockdowns and safety precautions strained relationships, he said.
Harris urged those without internet access to visit getinternet.gov to learn more about the program.
Nearly a third of households in Mecklenburg County with incomes below $20,000 do not have internet access, Census data show.
“In the 21st century, high speed internet is not a luxury. It’s a necessity,” Harris said.
Harris tied the issue of broadband expansion to abortion access, another topic she was in Charlotte to discuss.
“Our nation is facing a maternal mortality crisis,” Harris said. “For many of the women who live in rural communities, they also live in maternal care deserts, which means they lack access to health providers.”
Harris said the Affordable Connectivity Program can help connect people to telehealth for Americans to access “life-saving maternal care.”
Abortion access in North Carolina
Harris joined about a dozen state legislators, the executive director of a Charlotte abortion clinic and the president of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic for a roundtable discussion on reproductive rights.
Harris said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade took away the right to abortion for millions of Americans and put other issues such as access to contraceptives and gay marriage at stake.
In North Carolina, abortion remains legal. And the state’s attorney general, Josh Stein, said Thursday his office would not ask a federal judge to reinstate North Carolina’s 20-week ban on abortion, rebuffing a request from GOP legislative leaders in light of the landmark case’s reversal.
Calla Hales, co-owner and executive director of A Preferred Women’s Health Center in Charlotte, said her clinic has seen more than 68,000 protesters on her sidewalk since January 2017 — twice the number of patients the clinic helped during the same period.
There’s also been a notable jump in out-of-state patients seeking abortion care here. In June, North Carolina and Virginia Planned Parenthood locations provided abortion care to 95 people from South Carolina. Just two weeks into July, those same locations saw an increase in the number of patients up to 225 South Carolinians seeking abortion services,said Planned Parenthood South Atlantic communications specialist Molly Rivera.
Harris called on state legislators to support Gov. Roy Cooper, whose veto power allows Democrats to block anti-abortion legislation. She also called on Congress to codify the right to abortion.
“There are certain principles that are at stake on this issue and in this discussion, and one of them is that everyone in America should be free to make decisions about her own body without government interference,” Harris said.
She called out “extremist so-called leaders across the country who are daring to also pass laws that will not provide an exception for violent criminal acts like rape and incest.”
Before leaving Charlotte, Harris visited the 2022 Omega Psi Phi 83rd Grand Conclave convention, a yearly meeting of the historically Black fraternity, where she received a standing ovation.
She encouraged attendees to vote for two Democratic U.S. Senate candidates, Cheri Beasley in North Carolina and John Fetterman in Pennsylvania. Beasley faces Republican Rep. Ted Budd in the November general election.
Beasley is the former N.C. Supreme Court chief justice. Budd represents North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District.
Harris also asked attendees to talk to their families about reproductive rights, saying abortion may not be the right choice for every family, but that it should not be the government’s choice.
Harris departed Charlotte around 4:30 p.m., just before severe storms were expected to sweep through the area.
Live updates: NC governor is ‘only line of defense’ against anti-abortion bills, VP says
