Despite the potential for her to win the presidency with a GOP-controlled Congress, Vice President Kamala Harris is adamant that she doesn’t want to make concessions on abortion policy.
“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 told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson on Tuesday.
Jackson had asked the Democratic nominee what concessions she would consider offering to get abortion access passed by a Republican-controlled Congress — including if she would provide a religious exemption to appease her colleagues across the aisle.
“If in fact, Republicans control Congress, would you offer them an olive branch, or is that off the table? Is that not an option for you?” the anchor and senior Washington correspondent tried again.
Harris, 60, replied that she wouldn’t “engage in hypotheticals” before launching into what she called “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,” she said.
Jackson tried once more to push back on how she would get federal abortion rights reinstated without a Democratic majority in Congress.
“It’s a question that’s out there because it’s not a guarantee that Democrats will win control of Congress,” the anchor said.
Harris still declined to lay out a game plan for how she may try to nuke the filibuster in the Senate and wrangle through the codification of precedents first set in Roe v. Wade, calling the abortion access “non-negotiable.”
The vice president has made abortion rights a major pillar of her campaign for the White House — appealing to women of both parties who want the right to make health care decisions concerning their own bodies.
However, anti-abortion conservatives and Christians pushed back on Harris’ “no concessions” remarks Tuesday night, worrying about what implication that could have on religious-run medical facilities.
Harris has also sought to blame her opponent, former President Donald Trump, for the loss of federal abortion rights, noting his appointment of conservative judges to the Supreme Court which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The reversal set off a host of red-leaning states to install near or total abortion bans.
Trump has said he wants to keep the issue of abortion legalization up to individual states and claimed he would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress were to put one on his desk.
