ATLANTA — Vice President Kamala Harris visited metro Atlanta early Friday afternoon to highlight her support for abortion rights.
The vice president spoke at an event in Cobb County. Her remarks streamed below and are also available in full in the video player above this story.
The vice president spoke forcefully on the issue of reproductive freedom and spotlighted the death of Amber Thurman, a Georgia mother featured this week in an in-depth ProPublica report that said hers was the first time an abortion-related death officially deemed "preventable" has surfaced following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and subsequent enforcement of state abortion bans.
Thurman, a 28-year-old mother of a 6-year-old boy, died in 2022. According to the ProPublica report, it was officially deemed preventable by a state committee due to a delay in care for a rare complication that occurred when she took abortion pills.
"We're saying that we're gonna create policy that says a doctor, a healthcare provider, will only kick in to give the care somebody needs if they're about to die?" the vice president asked. "Think about what we are saying right now. You're saying that good policy -- logical policy, moral policy, humane policy -- is about saying that a healthcare provider will only start providing that care when you're about to die?"
Kamala Harris abortion rights remarks in Georgia | Live stream
Vice President Harris said she vowed to Thurman's mother that she would "not be remembered as a statistic."
"People will know she was a mother, and a daughter, and a sister, and that she was loved and that she should be alive today," Harris said.
She further touched on what she characterized as a compounding effect of state abortion restrictions with "longstanding neglect" in addressing issues like maternal mortality.
"And these hypocrites wanna start talking about, 'this is in the best interest of women and children,' well where have you been when it comes to taking care of the women and children of America?"