Readout on Vice President Harris’s Meeting with Health Care Providers on Women’s Health

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris virtually met with doctors and nurses on the frontlines about the impact that overturning Roe v. Wade would have on women’s health care. During the conversation, the Vice President was joined in person at the White House by advocates who are fighting to protect abortion and reproductive care.
 
The Vice President and the health care providers discussed a range of challenges that patients currently face as states pass extreme laws that restrict and ban access to reproductive care – challenges that will be exacerbated if Roe is reversed, such as difficulties treating miscarriages. The participants spoke with the Vice President about overly burdensome barriers their patients encounter to receive necessary health care, including dangerous misinformation. The providers shared why it is critical that women have the ability to make decisions about their own health and body with their doctor, without government interference. Each provider emphasized that providing dignified and adequate care in their states is already challenging, and if Roe is overturned, it will become even more difficult.
 
The Vice President and the participants spoke about how rolling back reproductive rights will not only impact states with existing abortion restrictions and trigger laws – it will impact Americans all over the country. The Vice President also raised that today the Oklahoma state legislature passed a bill that would effectively ban abortions from the moment of fertilization, calling the bill “outrageous.”  The Vice President noted that the majority of Americans support upholding a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body. Vice President Harris said that the Administration will continue to work with Members of Congress, state advocates and legislators, stakeholders, and those on the frontlines of the fight to protect reproductive rights.
 
Participants: 

• Dr. Rebecca Taub, OB/GYN practicing in California, Oklahoma, and Kansas
• Dr. Bhavik Kumar, Family Practice Physician with Planned Parenthood practicing in Texas
• Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Chief Medical Officer for Planned Parenthood of St. Louis, Missouri
• Helen Weems, MSN, RN, APRN, Founder and Director, All Families Healthcare in Montana

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