Vice President Kamala Harris in Madison, spotlights abortion

MILWAUKEE - Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in Wisconsin on Friday – returning to the battleground state for the fourth time since she launched her White House campaign in July.

Harris' entry into the race has enlivened the Democratic Party's base in Wisconsin, particularly in areas where she must run up big margins to carry a state that Joe Biden flipped from Republican Donald Trump in 2020.

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In Madison, Harris shared the story of Amber Thurman, a mother who decided to have an abortion when she became pregnant again.

"She had her future all planned out," Harris said. "And it was her plan. What she wanted to do for herself, for her son, for their future."

However, Thurman waited more than 20 hours at the hospital for a routine medical procedure known as a D&C to clear out remaining tissue after taking abortion pills. She developed sepsis and died. 

"She was loved," Harris said. "And she should be alive today."

Harris heard Thursday night from Thurman's mother and sisters.

During a livestreamed campaign event hosted by Oprah Winfrey and attended by Harris, Shanette Williams, Thurman's mother, tearfully told viewers that "people around the world need to know that this was preventable." Williams said she initially did not want to go public about her daughter’s 2022 death but ultimately decided it was important for people to understand her daughter "was not a statistic. She was loved."

Harris told the family: "I’m just so sorry. The courage you all have shown is extraordinary."

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Speaking in the Democratic stronghold and state capital, Madison, she called the bans put in place in more than 20 states "immoral" and warned against another Trump term.

"We are not going back," Harris said.

Trump has repeatedly said he was proud to help overturn Roe v. Wade by appointing conservative justices during his term in office. He's also said he supports exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother.

Anti-abortion advocates and doctors argued Friday that the women’s deaths raise questions around the safety of taking abortion pills at home without management by a doctor. Advocates have been pushing for tougher restrictions on the pills for years, most recently at the U.S. Supreme Court in a failed attempt to limit availability.

"Women think that it’s completely safe for them to go online and order these drugs," Christina Francis, a Fort Wayne, Indiana, OB-GYN who opposes abortion, told reporters Friday.

Since 2000, the FDA has approved a two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol as a safe way to end pregnancies through 10 weeks gestation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA eliminated an in-person visit requirement to get the drugs. Reported complications have been rare and surgical intervention to end the pregnancy is needed in 2.6% of cases.

Dozens of pregnant patients have faced delayed care or been turned away from hospitals amid medical emergencies over the last two years, a violation of federal law, since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. Violations occurred in states with and without abortion bans. But an AP analysis earlier this year found an immediate spike in some states with abortion bans, including Texas, following the ruling.

Dr. Nisha Verma, an OB-GYN in Georgia, said the six-week ban has caused a "massive environment of fear and confusion and uncertainty" for the medical community.

She said Republican legislators who are now blaming hospitals and doctors are seeing the ramifications of the laws playing out in real time.

"The law is preventing us from being able to provide evidence-based care without having to think about the risk of criminal prosecution," she said.

With in-person early voting starting Friday in three states — Virginia, South Dakota and Minnesota — Harris’ campaign is hoping that reproductive rights will be a strong motivator for Democrats. The party points to a series of electoral wins when abortion rights have been on the ballot, and advocates believe Harris is a strong messenger.

About half of voters say abortion is one of the most important issues as they consider their votes — but it’s more important to women who are registered voters than to male voters, according to a new AP-NORC poll. About 6 in 10 women voters say abortion policy is one of the most important issues to their vote in the upcoming election, compared to about 4 in 10 male voters.

The gender gap doesn't stop there.

About 6 in 10 women voters trust Harris more than Trump to handle abortion, while about 2 in 10 women have more trust in Trump. Half of male voters trust Harris more than Trump on abortion, while about one-third trust Trump more than Harris.

Her campaign said that since she entered the race, supporters in Wisconsin have knocked on more than 500,000 doors and that since last week's debate with Trump, the campaign has signed up more than 3,000 new volunteers.

When Biden was still running, organizers in Wisconsin said they had trouble getting volunteers to go door to door, a staple of any campaign.

Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has been campaigning in Wisconsin – visiting Wausau and Superior on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

U.S. Senator and Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance spoke in Eau Claire on Tuesday, Sept. 17.

GOP response

Team Trump Wisconsin released the following statement in response to Harris' Wisconsin visit:

"Kamala couldn’t have picked a worse time to visit Wisconsin. Since her last visit to the state, the  International Brotherhood of Teamsters released a poll showing that most of their rank and file members support President Donald J. Trump, and an Emerson College poll  found that she is losing to President Trump in the state. Wisconsinites know that Kamala and the Democrat Party are only paying lip services to top concerns for Wisconsin families, while President Trump has a record of helping hard-working Wisconsin families. The only candidate who will prioritize working Wisconsinites and Make America Affordable again, is Donald Trump." -Team Trump Wisconsin Press Secretary Jacob Fischer.