As Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, hits her second week on the campaign trail, her message has been consistent: Even in states with protections like Michigan, the right to abortion and other reproductive health care are not safe under a second Donald Trump presidency.  

President Joe Biden’s campaign, of which Harris inherited once the president dropped out of the race this month, ran advertisements platforming people from around the United States who have been impacted by abortion bans in some way. Hadley Duvall, a 22-year-old from Kentucky, recounted her experience in an ad earlier this month and at a Lansing press conference Tuesday.

Duvall said her stepfather sexually abused her as a child, and she became pregnant at 12 years old. 

“I’m 22, and I’m a first-generation college graduate,” Duvall said. “I’m living a life that I used to pray for. I’m now able to use my voice and advocate for our rights, and that’s what Roe used to give people in my situation: the opportunity to take your power back, a choice.”

Duvall had the option to have an abortion 10 years ago, but the Supreme Court decided states should make their own abortion policy a little over two years ago in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which repealed Roe v. Wade. Abortion is now banned in 14 states, including Kentucky, with no exceptions for rape or incest. 

Trump appointed three of the six Supreme Court justices that voted to overturn Roe. 

“Trump brags about overturning Roe v. Wade,” Duvall said. “… He’s called them a beautiful thing to watch. They don’t believe women and girls in my situation should have options. I would like to ask him, ‘What is so beautiful about telling a 12-year-old girl that she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her, to tell a girl who has already been robbed of her childhood that she will be robbed of her future, too?’”

U.S. Rep. Diana Degette (D-Colo.), state Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Twp.) and state Rep. Kara Hope (D-Holt) joined Duvall for the press conference in Lansing. Duvall also spoke in Flint and Detroit on behalf of the Harris campaign Tuesday, with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel slated to join her.

The speakers emphasized the importance of voting for Democratic candidates, including Harris, to keep the right to abortion in Michigan. 

“Here in Michigan, we support the right to reproductive freedom,” Hope said. “We put our trust in doctors, not MAGA politicians. I don’t want J.D. Vance [Trump’s running mate] in the exam room with me. This November, voters will elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States because she’s the only candidate on the ballot that has vowed to fight for our rights, not rip them away.”

Vance, the freshman U.S. Ohio senator, has faced scrutiny in the last week over his comments about abortion and people without children. 

The Democratic Party platform has yet to be unveiled, but Harris’ campaign efforts as both Biden’s running mate and a presidential candidate have highlighted a commitment to protecting reproductive health care, including abortion, IVF and birth control.

Trump, the Republican nominee, went publicly quiet on a national abortion ban, and he rejected connections to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a presidential transition plan that would peel back many reproductive health care rights. However, CNN reported that at least 140 people in the previous Trump administration worked on the far-right policy plan. 

The 2024 Republican Party platform says the GOP will leave abortion rights up to the states and protect IVF and contraception. But GOP lawmakers have voted against protecting both birth control and IVF this summer. And the platform the platform also supports establishing fetal personhood through the 14th Amendment, a longtime priority of the anti-abortion movement. 

 

Degette, who co-chairs the House Pro-Choice Caucus, raised concerns about Project 2025’s impact on reproductive care if implemented. The plan indicates the GOP wants to ban the shipping of mifepristone, a primary way doctors administer abortion procedures. 

She also said that her GOP colleagues in the House have thrown support behind a bill that defines personhood beginning at conception, which has the potential to ban abortion without exceptions, IVF and many forms of birth control. 

Brixie said Michigan voters should know that just because the state had approved abortion protection in 2022 didn’t mean those rights would be recognized under a federal ban.

“Let me be clear, here in Michigan, our reproductive rights are under attack,” Brixie said. “It doesn’t matter that we voted overwhelmingly to protect our right to an abortion, because any federal policy Trump and Vance push for would supersede state protection.”

While saying they were afraid of what a Trump presidency would mean, speakers also expressed excitement for Harris’s commitment to restoring abortion rights. Degette said the Pro-Choice Caucus has continually worked with Harris to find ways to protect reproductive care.

“She has been a fierce champion for abortion rights her entire career,” Degette said.”So she can help articulate this, and she can help lead us forward. The fact that we’re right here, one week after she announced she was running, shows the importance to the campaign, and frankly, the importance to America.”