WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Vice President Kamala Harris, who hasn’t been to Iowa in years, is heading back to the Hawkeye State this Thursday for a roundtable discussion on abortion rights, according to the White House.
Harris will be in Des Moines to talk about “extreme” measures to limit abortion across the country in the wake of last June’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, according to multiple media outlets.
The vice president, the White House says, has hosted 40 meetings on abortion rights.
“Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, extremist so-called leaders in states around the country have imposed and passed new extreme laws to ban abortion and criminalized healthcare providers, or have moved to enforce all laws on the book, many including no exception even for rape and incest,” Harris said earlier this week on a teleconference call with reporters.
Iowa prohibits abortion after 20 weeks, but Gov. Kim Reynolds has asked the Iowa Supreme Court to weigh in on a law that would ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
President Joe Biden, Harris, and many of their fellow D.C. Democrats are vocal supporters of abortion on demand, with few limitations. Biden has directed the Pentagon to pay for the cost of travel for military members and their dependents to receive elective “non-covered” abortions.
“The Biden-Harris administration has turned to outright lawlessness to impose abortion without any limits right up to birth, paid for by taxpayers, in all 50 states,” said Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement last month. She noted a Marist poll in January that found Seven in 10 Americans want greater protections for unborn children and their mothers and reject taxpayer-funded abortion on demand.
Thursday marks the first time Harris has been to Iowa — a deep red state that has repeatedly rejected her boss, Biden — since becoming vice president. She was a regular visitor for a time in 2019, during her short-lived presidential campaign. She dropped out in December of that year, before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Harris comes to a state being courted by presumptive and declared GOP presidential candidates. Former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley have all made stops in Iowa in the last week.
The White House appears to be attempting to raise the profile of an unpopular vice president as Team Biden prepares for a re-election run. At the end of the month, Harris is scheduled to spend a week in Africa.
“The trip will strengthen the United States’ partnerships throughout Africa and advance our shared efforts on security and economic prosperity,” said a statement from the vice president’s spokeswoman Kirsten Allen.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
