(NewsNation) — Vice President Kamala Harris promised Wednesday to restore abortion rights the U.S. Supreme Court overturned under former president Donald Trump’s leadership.
Her comments were part of a keynote speech Wednesday at the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. Grand Boulé in Republican-voting Indiana. Harris has been a member of the fellow historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha since her time at Howard University. After commending the group’s voter registration, education and mobilization efforts, Harris emphasized her efforts surrounding reproductive rights and maternal health care.
“Former President Donald Trump hand-picked three members of the United States Supreme Court, because he intended for them to overturn Roe v. Wade…and as he intended, they did,” she said. “Well let me tell you something: When I am president of the United States and when Congress passes a law to restore those freedoms, I will sign it into law.”
Harris has been an outspoken defender of abortion rights since the June 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Her March trip to a Michigan Planned Parenthood made her the first president or vice president to tour a clinic that provides abortion services.
“One does not need to abandon her faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do,” Harris said Wednesday.
Support among younger, female, nonwhite voters could be the key to her presidential bid, Harris’ campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo released Wednesday.
“Where Vice President Harris goes, grassroots enthusiasm follows,” O’Malley Dillon wrote. “This campaign will be close, it will be hard fought, but Vice President Harris is in a position of strength — and she’s going to win.”
Harris was critical Wednesday of Project 2025 — conservatives’ wide-ranging plan to dismantle federal government agencies if Trump wins the presidency.
“There are those that are trying to take us backward,” Harris said. “You may have heard their agenda. Part of it is called Project 2025. Now, can you believe they put that in writing? 900 pages of it. Project 2025. A plan to return America to a dark past.”
A main component of Project 2025 is the firing of as many as 50,000 federal workers who conservative groups say will get in the way of Trump’s agenda. Under Project 2025, agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education would be “eliminated,” and others, like the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Justice Department, would be put under the president’s control.
Authors of Project 2025 say it’s a guide to undo the “damage” they say liberal politicians have caused America. Critics say Project 2025 is extremist, “authoritarian” and dystopian.
“This represents an outright attack on our children, on our families and our future,” Harris said. “We are not going back.”
Harris debuted her presidential campaign Sunday after President Joe Biden, 81, announced he no longer planned to accept the Democratic nomination.
Her appearance at the event, which focused on women’s legacy, leadership and impact, was scheduled before she announced her campaign.
A victory for Harris would make her the nation’s first female president and the first president of Black and South Asian descent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.