Why Kamala Harris’ visit to a Minnesota abortion clinic is so important

People come to Minnesota these days in search of rights other states have taken away.

On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris came to Minnesota to visit an abortion clinic.

Not something you can do in every state. Not anymore. The new conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to an abortion.

The vice president’s visit to Planned Parenthood in St. Paul is a historic first. The facility provides abortions, as well as contraception and education. No American president or vice president has ever been known to set foot in an abortion clinic. Wild, considering how much time America’s politicians spend legislating about the topic. And the trip comes at a crucial moment.

One by one, everyday rights we took for granted are being stripped or attacked. Don’t want to get pregnant? Some states imposed abortion bans so sweeping they rule out entire categories of birth control. You do want to get pregnant? Hope you don’t live in Alabama, where the state Supreme Court says all the embryos you froze for your IVF treatments are people now.

Families are migrating to Minnesota in search of schools with unbanned books and legislatures that don’t want to be the arbiters of which bathroom their child can use and what medical care they deserve to receive. Minnesota passed a transgender refuge law last year. Refuge from politicians who think the opposite of “woke” is cruelty.

So the vice president did what few politicians do these days. She visited an abortion clinic and listened to the people who came to Planned Parenthood for care.

She listened to health care workers who talked about the services they provide. Abortions, yes, but also cancer screenings, birth control and sex ed for patients who might otherwise be getting their information from TikTok.

She listened to the stories of the women who came here for care. Most of them mothers already. More and more of them traveling hundreds of miles for care they can no longer find at home.

When you stop talking about other people’s abortions and start listening, you learn the sort of stories Harris has heard from families across the country. Stories of women who have faced prosecution for miscarriages. Women begging for help in the emergency room as doctors hesitate, afraid of running afoul of new state laws that could send them to prison.

“So I’m here at this health care clinic to uplift the work that is happening in Minnesota as an example of what true leadership looks like,” Harris said. “It is only right and fair that people have access to the health care that they need ... in an environment where they are treated with dignity and respect.”

One out of every four Americans who can get pregnant will have an abortion by the time they turn 45, according to estimates by the Guttmacher Institute. It used to be one out of three, but states made access punishingly difficult, even before the bans.

South Dakota’s lone abortion provider used to have to fly in from Minnesota, before the Dakotas banned abortion outright. Now, you can’t get an abortion in South Dakota. But don’t look to state lawmakers if your children are hungry. South Dakota was one of 15 states that opted out of federal funding for summer nutritional programs for children.

School lunches are free in Minnesota.