Readout of Vice President Kamala Harris’s Meeting with State Legislators, Health Care Providers, Advocates, and Students on Reproductive Rights in Des Moines, IA

Today, in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Kamala Harris convened state legislators, health care providers, advocates, students, and other leaders to discuss the fight to protect reproductive rights. The Vice President’s event follows attacks on reproductive rights at the national and state level, which are endangering women’s lives and have repercussions beyond reproductive health care.
 
The Vice President thanked the participants for their leadership fighting on the frontlines for reproductive health care. The Vice President emphasized that politicians should not interfere with a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions with her doctors. The Vice President highlighted how states have proposed and passed extreme abortion restrictions following the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade. The Vice President outlined how abortion bans are an attack on the right to basic health care, and an affront to freedom and liberty. She also discussed extremists’ efforts to achieve a nationwide ban of medication abortion, which was approved by the FDA as safe and effective more than 20 years ago.
 
State legislators, advocates, providers, and students shared how they are attempting to defend reproductive health care and abortion access in Iowa, and how a majority of Iowans support reproductive rights. The participants shared stories of how women’s lives are put at risk when they cannot get reproductive health care. They also expressed concerns about how other rights, such as contraception and LGBTQI+ rights, are at stake following the Dobbs decision. The Vice President and local leaders pledged to continue fighting to protect access to reproductive healthcare in Iowa and nationwide.
 
The Vice President has brought together leaders from across the nation who are on the frontlines fighting to protect reproductive health care and abortion access. From the time the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked in May, the Vice President has hosted approximately 40 different official convenings across the country focused on reproductive rights. She has met with people from 38 states, including health care providers, constitutional law and privacy experts, faith leaders, disability rights leaders, civil rights leaders, higher education leaders, students, advocates, state attorneys general, and other state leaders. 
 
Public Speaking Participants 

• The Vice President
• State Senator Zach Wahls, Iowa State Senate Minority Leader
• State Representative Lindsay James, Iowa House Minority Whip
• Dr. Kaaren Olesen, OB/GYN Clinic Section Chief, Broadlawns Medical Center