Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Minnesota on Thursday.
Harris toured the clinic in the Twin Cities area and spoke to physicians about how they’ve been affected by abortion bans outside of the state, a White House official told HuffPost. The stop, first reported by NBC News, is part of the vice president’s Fight for Reproductive Freedoms tour. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) were slated to join her.
“I’m here at this health care clinic to uplift the work that is happening in Minnesota as an example of what true leadership looks like,” Harris told reporters at the clinic, CNN reported.
“The reason I’m here is because this is a health care crisis,” Harris said. “Part of this health care crisis is the clinics like this that have had to shut down and what that has meant to leave no options with any reasonable geographic area for so many women who need this essential care.”
Minnesota has become a safe haven for abortion in the Midwest since the U.S. Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in 2022. North Dakota and South Dakota enacted near-total abortion bans right after the high court’s decision, and Nebraska has a 12-week ban on the books. After the state saw an uptick in out-of-state patients, Walz signed a “refuge” law that shielded people traveling to Minnesota for abortions from legal consequences in their home states.
The Planned Parenthood clinic provides abortion care, as well as birth control and other reproductive health services. The name and location of the clinic were not released.
“Today is a historic day for Planned Parenthood, as this visit marks the first time in history that a sitting Vice President has visited a Planned Parenthood health center,” Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice president of policy, organizing and campaigns at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has been an invaluable champion for sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, and Vice President Harris has prioritized traveling across the country to see this access crisis first hand since the fall of Roe,” Ayers said. “We are grateful for the Administration’s partnership as we fight for reproductive freedom.”
A White House official said Harris planned to highlight the work of pro-choice advocates and lawmakers in Minnesota, and hoped to discuss how the Biden-Harris administration plans to protect reproductive freedom in the coming months.
Harris’ trip is believed to be the first to an abortion clinic by any president or vice president. This is her third visit to Minnesota since she took office.
Between the president and vice president, Harris has been the more outspoken advocate for abortion rights. Pro-choice advocates have been frustrated with President Joe Biden for his hesitation to fully support abortion rights in a post-Roe world, including his seeming reluctance to say the word itself. In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Biden said he’s “never been supportive of, you know, ‘It’s my body, I can do what I want with it.’”
The Biden-Harris administration has made restoring federal abortion protections a pillar of its reelection campaign. Biden kicked off the campaign earlier this year with a “Restore Roe” rally in Virginia, where he condemned the Supreme Court decision that repealed Roe and the extreme abortion bans Republicans have enacted in over a dozen states since.