Vice President Harris will visit a Minnesota clinic that performs abortions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday plans to tour a Minnesota clinic that performs abortions and provides other reproductive care, as Democrats play up their opposition to the rollback of abortion rights in an effort to help reelect President Joe Biden in November.

It will be the first time that a president or vice president has been to a reproductive health clinic, according to Harris’ office.

Her trip to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area is part of a nationwide tour she began in January to draw attention to the fallout after the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. The decision cleared the way for Republican-led states to enact limitations or bans on the procedure.

Harris, the first woman elected vice president, has been the Democratic administration’s loudest voice condemning the court’s decision, arguing that the government has no right to tell a woman what she can do with her body. While Biden has vowed to be the president who restores the protections of Roe, he tends to talk about the “right to choose” instead of saying “abortion.”

Abortion rights have proved to be a potent issue driving voters to the polls and boosting Democrats ever since the high court ended the constitutional right to the procedure nearly two years ago. The issue could be pivotal in the presidential race and congressional contests this year.

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