Kamala Harris rejects
religious exemptions for abortion laws: ‘That cannot be negotiable’
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 23, 2024 / 14:35 pm
Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed that she
would oppose religious exemptions in abortion laws if elected president and
emphasized that she would not make concessions to Republicans on the issue.
The Democratic nominee made the
comments in a Tuesday interview when
NBC News’ Hallie Jackson asked Harris “what concessions would be on the table”
when considering federal laws on abortion and specifically whether she would
consider “religious exemptions.”
“I don’t think we should be making concessions
when we’re talking about a fundamental freedom to make decisions
about your own body,” Harris responded.
Jackson followed up on the question, asking whether
the vice president would extend “an olive branch” to moderate Republicans who
support legal abortion but do not support all of Harris’ abortion policies. But
the Democratic nominee also rejected this, saying abortion “cannot be
negotiable.”
“I’m not gonna engage in hypotheticals because we
could go on a variety of scenarios,” Harris said.
“Let’s just start with a fundamental fact, a basic freedom has been
taken from the women of America: the freedom to make decisions about their own
body. And that cannot be negotiable, which is that we need to put back in the
protections of Roe v. Wade.”
Harris continued, adding that former president
Donald Trump “allowed Roe v. Wade to be overturned” and said: “So that’s
my point about what is nonnegotiable — it has to be that we agree that it is so
fundamental that we allow women the ability with their doctor, with, if they
choose, talking with their faith leader, to be able to make these decisions and
not have the government tell her what to do.”
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The vice president’s opposition to
religious freedom exemptions regarding abortion laws is consistent with her
record as a senator. In 2019, Harris introduced the Do No Harm Act,
which would have scaled back religious liberty exemptions to government
mandates that exist in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Under the proposed law,
which failed to make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, religious
employers would not be exempt from covering “any health care item or
service” that is required under federal law. This would have
eliminated religious exemptions to any coverage related to abortion, contraception,
transgender surgeries, or any other health care issue.
Harris introduced the proposal when
the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor sought a religious exemption to an
Affordable Care Act rule that mandated coverage of drugs that could induce
abortions. Although the sisters were initially denied, they obtained their
religious exemption with a victory in the United States
Supreme Court thanks to the exemptions that Harris was
trying to remove from federal law.
Opposition to religious liberty exemptions for
abortion is also consistent with the Biden-Harris administration’s policies
over the last four years.
The Biden-Harris Department of Health
and Human Services promulgated a rule in 2022 that sought to force all
hospitals, including Catholic hospitals, to provide abortions if it constituted
a “stabilizing treatment” under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act
(EMTALA). This rule was blocked by
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and the United States Supreme
Court declined to hear the administration’s appeal.
According to the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops, “direct abortion is never permissible.”
Grazie Pozo Christie, a senior fellow at The
Catholic Association, said in a statement that Harris “should clarify, and
quickly, whether given the chance she would force Americans who object on
religious or conscience grounds to participate in abortion.”
“Sadly, it would not be the first time Harris has
used her political power to trample the rights of religious Americans,”
Christie said.
Harris has committed to enshrining a legal right to
abortion into federal law at least until the point of
viability by codifying the abortion standards set in the now-defunct Roe v.
Wade ruling. During her candidacy for president, she has also refused to disavow late-term
abortion, which is legal in several states.
Tyler
Arnold is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency, based in EWTN News’
Washington Bureau. He previously worked at The Center Square and has been
published in a variety of outlets, including The Associated Press, National
Review, The American Conservative, and The Federalist.
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