Vice Presidential Pool Reports of January 29, 2024

VP Harris pool report 1 - intros

Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at East San Jose's Hispanic Heritage Plaza theater Monday afternoon on her nationwide "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour, after a land acknowledgement led by local community members, a live mariachi band performance, and short speeches from local reproductive health care advocates and providers.

Protesters calling for a cease-fire in Gaza gathered in front of the Plaza as around 450 attendees entered.

Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, spoke at 11:35am to kick off the event.

"I'm excited about this not just because of the work we've done here in California ... but I'm also honored to be here because, like for many of you, this is a deeply personal issue for me."

Wicks shared about needing an emergency abortion procedure when she miscarried in 2021.

"I knew this was an issue I was going to champion as a state legislator," she told the audience. California "will continue to lead the way in the nation" where abortion access and reproductive health care is concerned, she said.

Sen. Laphonza Butler also kicked off the event, speaking after Wicks.

"How awesome is it in this moment of time to have a VP who is also a Californian?" Butler called Harris "a daughter of California" whose office she was honored to now work in.

Butler, the former president of EMILY's List, recalled the moment she learned of the Dobbs decision. She was on a Zoom call after dropping her daughter off at the bus stop to school.

"I will never forget realizing that my 9-year-old daughter was going to come home less free than when I dropped her off," she said. "I am not interested in my daughter or America's daughters having less than -- not less freedom, not less opportunity, not less representation."

Sen. Alex Padilla spoke after Butler just before noon.

"What we should be doing is celebrating the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But instead, women are living with one less essential right that was in place for half a century. Why?" he asked.

"Because about 18 months ago, a radical right-wing Supreme Court chose to overturn five decades of precedent and strip away the fundamental right of abortion."

"We're going to continue to speak up, stand up, march, and fight until all of our rights are restored."

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra spoke at 12:05pm.

"I'm thrilled to get to join the VP as she continues to go around the country to educate and talk the truth about what's going on," said Becerra, the former California Attorney General. He also thanked Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff.

"All I know is that we all gotta be in this one," Becerra said. "There is nothing we can leave in our pocket." Becerra went "a little off script" to share that he is the first HHS Secretary to visit a Planned Parenthood in the nation.

"At the Department of Health and Human Services, we are in this deep," he said.

He quoted the poet Robert Frost. "How many things have to happen to you, before something occurs to you?"

"The Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, we know what's happening. And we're not waiting. We are going to take action. We're going to stand up, we're going to join you. We will be there. Because we are in this fight to win it."

Abortion care and contraception. We're not in government to take away rights. We don't think it's a good idea to go back to the bad ol days," he said.

Dr. Pratima Gupta, an obstetrician/gynecologist at the University of California, San Diego, introduced the Vice President at 12:15pm.

"Reproductive health care is essential for people's safety and wellbeing," said Gupta. She shared about a patient who traveled from a restrictive state to have an abortion. Dr. Gupta performed the abortion, and gave her the birth control she wanted.

"We should be proud of this in California, because this is how it should work everywhere."

"Being unable to obtain an abortion has major effects on people's lives, their health and wellbeing. When access is restricted, she said, marginalized communities experience those effects most profoundly.

VP Harris pool report 2 - VP Harris / Sophia Bush

Actor and activist Sophia Bush and the Vice President sat down at 12:20pm.

"You keep our rights a top issue," Bush said, thanking the VP.

Harris, in turn, thanked her fellow politicians for appearing at the event, "as well as my husband, the first Second Gentleman of the United States."

"Just over a year ago, the highest court in our land, the court of Thurgood and RGB, took a constitutional right from the people of America, from the women of America," said Harris.

She said that extremists, "so-called leaders," have proposed and passed laws that would punish health care providers and women, and make no exception for rape and incest.

A few minutes into the moderated discussion, protesters began to shout from the audience calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

"We all want this conflict to end as soon as possible," the Vice President said over the shouting.

Harris spoke over the protesters as they continued to yell, before security escorted them out.

"We are in a situation in this country where there are people who are suffering," said Harris.

"We knew it was precious, but we kind of always thought it would be there," Harris said of Roe v. Wade, before protesters again disrupted.

"The topic for this discussion is what we need to do to fight back against laws that are criminalizing health care providers and making women suffer" she said as protesters were removed.

The audience chanted "four more years" to drown at protesters who were shouting about Gaza.

"There are a lot of big issues impacting our world right now," said Harris. "The topic for today, here, is the topic of what has happened in our country after the Dobbs decision, which took away the rights of people to make decisions for their own body. We should not be distracted from any important issue."

One particularly important issue is GOP-led efforts to ban abortion outright, even in the case of rape or incest.

"Let's understand what no exception to rape and incest means," said Harris, after sharing that she was motivated to become a prosecutor in part because a close friend in high school was being molested at home.

No exceptions for rape and invest is "saying to survivors that after a crime of violence to their body, a violation to their body, they don't have a right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That's immoral. This is what's happening to women in our country."

There has to be "some consensus that one does not have to abandon their faith to agree that the government should not be telling us what to do with our bodies," Harris said.

Bush asked Harris what Californians can do at the local and state level to get involved.

"Part of the environment in which this issue exists is an environment that is heavily laden with judgement," said Harris. "It is suggested to these women that they've done something wrong. Something they should be embarrassed about.

Abortion stigma makes a patient "feel as though she's alone. One of the things that can be most disempowering is when people feel alone, that they don't have community, much less support."

Harris said that in her travels around the U.S. she has seen that communication yield results, including people who are vehemently opposed to abortion procedures themselves but who are reconsidering their position about abortion policies because they "weren't aware of the suffering" that would happen as a result of decisions like the Dobbs decision.

She also cautioned against the Trump Administration's "perverse" way of leading by who they beat down, rather than who they lift up.

"None of us can afford to say 'Thank god we're in California,'" she said, because so many leaders in the Republican Party are pursuing a national abortion ban.

"We just gotta hustle over these next ten months ... We've got a lot of ground to cover."

"When we talk about the strain that comes into (California) from (people in) surrounding states, we're doing the math locally but potentially nationally for a true health care crisis," Bush said to Harris. "Can you walk us through whose responsible for this? This was an intentional crisis. How did we get to this point?"

"The former president of the United States hand-picked three members of the US Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo Roe. Let's be very clear about it," said Harris. "Take him at his word. He's proud of what did.

"Proud? That doctors might go to jail for providing health care? Proud that women are having miscarriages without any help they might need?"

Ultimately, Harris said, "this fight is fundamentally about freedom."

Speaking about maternal mortality in the United States, Harris said that all of the issues "are connected."

Bush had one last question: What gives Harris hope?

"A number of things," the Vice President said. "This audience. Each of you have so many things you could be doing with your time," she said.

She spoke of the "duality" of democracy. One on end, it's very strong when it's intact.

"It's also very fragile," she said. "It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it. And fight we will."

She also looks to Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, Coretta Scott King, for guidance.

"The fight for civil rights must be fought and won with each generation," she said, paraphrasing King.

"Whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent. Therefore, understanding that, we must always be vigilant. "We must understand how precarious and precious this all is, and commit ourselves every day to fight for these rights and freedoms."

Harris was interrupted again by more ceasefire protests.

"Let us remember there's a lot to right for," Harris said over demonstrators.

"There are a lot of folks who can't be in this room, and we all know its our duty, not just responsibility, to stand for these most essential freedoms."