Harris calls Trump ‘the architect of this crisis’ for overturning Roe v Wade

Kamala Harris then recounted her meeting with Amber Nicole Thurman’s mother, who asked her not to forget who her daughter was:

Through the pain and the grief, her mother courageously told her story. I promised her, as she has asked, that we will make sure Amber is not just remembered as a statistic, that she will not just be remembered as a statistic, so that people will know she was a mother and a daughter and a sister, and that she was loved and that she should be alive today.

She drew applause by saying that, as president, she would stand with women elsewhere who were suffering the consequences of abortion bans:

It’s happening every day in our country, an untold number of people suffering, women, who are also being made to feel as though they did something wrong. The judgment factor here is outrageous, being made as though to feel as though they are criminals, as though they are alone. So to those women, to those families, I say on behalf of what I believe we all say: we see you, and you are not alone, and we are all here standing with you.

Harris added that by appointing the justices who overturned Roe v Wade, Trump created a public health crisis:

This is a healthcare crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis.

Before Harris wrapped up her speech, she said she believed Donald Trump would sign a national abortion ban, if elected.

Trump has equivocated on whether or not he would do so, saying at the debate last week that he did not think any such legislation would get through Congress.

Harris said:

The stakes are so high, because if he is elected again, I am certain he will sign a national abortion ban, which would outlaw abortion in every single state, and he would create a national anti-abortion coordinator. Look at Project 2025 – enforce states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions. It’s right there.

Harris then began discussing the case of Amber Nicole Thurman, who ProPublica reported earlier this week died after being denied care due to the state’s abortion ban.

“We will speak her name, Amber Nicole Thurman,” Harris said, as the crowd repeated her name back.

The vice-president then made the case that Trump was responsible for her death:

When she discovered that she was pregnant, she decided she wanted to have an abortion. But because of the Trump abortion ban here in Georgia, she was forced to travel out of state to receive the healthcare that she needed, but when she returned to Georgia, she needed additional care, so she went to a hospital. But you see, under the Trump abortion ban, her doctors could have faced up to a decade in prison for providing Amber the care she needed. Understand what a law like this means: doctors have to wait until the patient is at death’s door before they take action.