Harris and Beyonce rally on abortion rights in Texas

Kamala Harris told a rally in Houston, Texas, that Donald Trump has reversed 50 years of progress on women’s reproductive rights and, if elected, he will make sure abortion is banned across the United States.

The Democratic Party nominee said to a boisterous crowd packed into the city’s Shell Energy Stadium, that since the former president appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v Wade, more than 20 states now had an abortion ban.

“For anyone watching from another state, if you think you are protected from Trump abortion bans because you live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, California or any state where voters or legislators have protected reproductive freedom, please know: No one is protected,” Harris said. “Because a Donald Trump national ban will outlaw abortion in every single state.”

Trump has repeatedly denied he would support a national ban, but critics say his position has changed so many times that his word cannot be trusted.

Harris was joined on stage by singer Beyonce, who is from Houston, her mother Tina Knowles, and by her former Destiny’s Child bandmate, Kelly Rowland.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, loud, Texas welcome to the next president of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris,” Beyonce said to the capacity crowd.

“I’m not here as a celebrity. I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother.”

She added: “A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided.”

Beyonce didn’t perform, but she has allowed Harris’s Democratic campaign to use her song “Freedom”, a cut from her landmark 2016 album, Lemonade, as its anthem.

Largest rally so far

Harris’s campaign said Friday night’s was her largest rally to date; the crowd waited for hours, wearing flashing red, white and blue LED bracelets as “trust women” and “freedom” flashed on big screens between acts.

The rally focused on reproductive rights and it heard testimonies from women who have nearly died from sepsis and other pregnancy complications because they were unable to get proper medical care, including women who never intended to end their pregnancies.

With the presidential election in a dead heat, Harris is banking on abortion rights as a major driver for voters – including for Republican women, particularly since Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right. He has been unclear about how he would approach the issue if voters return him to the White House.

There is some evidence to suggest that abortion rights may drive women to the polls as it did during the 2022 midterm elections. Voters in seven states, including some conservative ones, have either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to restrict them in statewide votes over the past two years.

“Since Roe was overturned and reproductive rights have been on the ballot, people of America have voted for freedom,” Harris said. She promised as president to sign a law restoring a federal right to abortion if Congress passes one.

Trump Michigan rally delayed

The Republican nominee was also in Texas on Friday for an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation’s most popular podcaster. Trump is courting younger male voters with whom Rogan is a hit.

But the interview delayed Trump’s arrival at a rally in Michigan by nearly three hours.

Thousands of his supporters left while others huddled in the cold to wait for the former president at an outdoor rally in the battleground state.

Minutes before Trump’s Michigan event was scheduled to begin at 7:30pm local time, his spokesman posted on the social media platform X that Trump was just leaving Texas, more than two hours away by air. Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising: ”We’re going to have a good time tonight.”

Trump eventually took the stage at the Traverse City airport, where temperatures dipped to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) and offered an apology.

”I am so sorry,” he said. ”We comberan so tied up, and I figured you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win.”

Source

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Al Jazeera and news agencies