Pro-life groups are furious with Vice President Kamala Harris after she took an uncompromising position on abortion rights, confronting many faith-based health care providers.
Harris told NBC's Harry Jackson on Tuesday that she does not support religious exemptions to abortion and would not make any concessions on the issue if elected under a potentially divisive government. spoke.
“I don't think we should compromise when we're talking about the fundamental freedom to make decisions about your own body,” Harris said in an interview.
Christian and pro-life leaders said her position is hostile to lay doctors and Catholic hospitals, which view abortion as a sinful act that takes innocent lives. They questioned whether she would respect constitutional protections for religious Americans if elected president.
Harris refuses to concede to Republicans on any abortion law, including religious exemptions
NBC's Harry Jackson (left) interviews Vice President Kamala Harris on October 22, 2024. (NBC News)
“Kamala Harris' comments here demonstrate that she believes the First Amendment no longer applies to people of faith, including Catholics,” Catholic Vote President Brian said. Birch said in an interview with FOX News Digital.
“She is putting Catholic doctors in prison, stripping Catholic doctors of their medical licenses, and setting the stage for the closure of Catholic health care as we know it.”
Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, a senior fellow at the Catholic Association, said Harris “urgently clarifies whether Americans who object for religious or conscience reasons will have the opportunity to be forced to participate in abortion.” We should.”
“Sadly, this is not the first time Ms. Harris has used her political power to trample on the rights of religious Americans.”
Harris says Biden was “honest with the American people” about his mental strength: “He's capable in every way.”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the CNN Presidential Town Hall at Sun Center Studios in Aston, Pennsylvania on October 23, 2024. (Getty Images)
The Biden-Harris administration has come under fire from Christian and pro-life groups for filing a lawsuit under the Freedom of Admissions Act against activists who prayed outside abortion clinics. Lauren Handy, a citizen activist for pro-life communities, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison in May for organizing a similar protest outside a Washington, D.C., clinic in 2020.
Catholic Vote and others accused the Biden-Harris administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department against abortion opponents. Harris' campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Harris declined in the interview to say whether there are any restrictions on abortion that she supports. Harris refused to “commit to hypotheticals” when Jackson repeatedly approached her about possible compromises she could support to pass legislation to expand access to abortion.
“Let's start with a basic fact: American women are being robbed of a fundamental freedom, the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies. And that is non-negotiable, and we are depriving them of a fundamental freedom, the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies. We need to reinstate the protections of 'Wade, that's it,''' Harris said.
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Arizona residents took to the streets Tuesday to rally for abortion rights in response to the Arizona Supreme Court's decision to enact an 1864 law banning abortion in Phoenix on April 16, 2024. (Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The vice president is sponsoring a bill in Congress that would codify the Supreme Court's opinion in the now-defunct Roe v. Wade case, which would guarantee federal protections for access to abortion and expand national It would override nearly all abortion regulations enacted by pro-life lawmakers at the state level.
William Wolf, founder and executive director of the Baptist Leadership Center, said Harris' position “makes clear” that “Christians are not welcome in the modern pro-abortion Democratic Party.”
“Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Kamala administration would overturn the First Amendment and force Christian doctors and hospitals to provide abortions. “There is nothing Democrats value more than the freedom to end innocent lives before they are born in the womb, without legal restrictions or repercussions,” Wolf said. he said.
“Her zealous commitment to abortion access and disregard for the First Amendment is not a bug, but a hallmark of her platform. How can a Christian honestly support such a barbaric and unconstitutional candidate? I don’t understand.”
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Polls show the 2024 presidential election is on track to be one of the closest in decades, and political analysts agree. Seven battleground states will decide the winner, and with those states expected to be decided by close margins, there is a good chance that support from powerful voters such as Catholics will be the difference between victory and defeat.
“The Catholic vote is going to be very important, as it has been in every election for the last 40 years,” Birch said.
“Democrats are saying, let's force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions on a safe, legal, rare basis, or we'll throw them in jail. This is quite a change, and voters realize that this is a bridge too far. I think so.”
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Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of the Iowa-based social conservative group The Family Leader, said, “I have never seen an election that shows such a stark contrast in worldviews'' than the 2024 presidential election. I've never done that before.''
“I can't tell a doctor that my so-called 'right' to have an abortion trumps your rights of conscience. So I can force you to do what I believe is murder. “It's not the America I grew up in, it's not the America of our founders,” he said.
“The First Amendment, which guarantees religious freedom, is on the ballot. Choose wisely, America.”
Harris is scheduled to visit Texas on Friday, a state her campaign calls “the stronghold of Trump's abortion ban.” She will attend an event in Houston with women who have “faced the direct effects of these extreme laws” and will speak about “the harm Donald Trump's abortion ban has caused across the country.”
