By Sarah Holliday

On January 22, Vice President Kamala Harris will launch the “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour to promote abortion nationwide. This event is supposed to serve as a boost to President Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign. According to a statement from the White House, the start date is meant to signify the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, despite the fact that it was overturned by the Dobbs decision in June of last year.

The tour is meant to promote not just access to abortion, but all kinds of pro-abortion rhetoric including “the freedom of every American to make decisions about their own body,” “the harm caused by … abortion bans,” and “stories of those who have been impacted,” as described in the White House’s statement. As far as Harris is concerned, this is about the “harm” and impact Dobbs has had on women who couldn’t kill their babies. Never mind the fact that over 30,000 innocent lives have been saved since the end of Roe.

Harris described access to abortion as a “fundamental right,” and insisted it’s the “extremists” across the country that have attacked it “as they push their radical policies.” Because, in the Democratic Party, wanting access to an abortion up until the moment of birth is not radical.

While further details have yet to be disclosed, Harris will start her tour in Wisconsin and make her way around the country pushing the false narrative that abortion is health care. As vice president, Harris has made abortion her main gig, so a tour like this only continues that pattern. But it is unfortunate, to say the least, that this is what she has decided to prioritize. Especially as this nation suffers from other crises: open southern borders allowing in millions of illegal immigrants and even terrorists, homelessness and rampant crime, and debates over the war in Gaza and the anti-Semitism exploding from coast to coast. But yes, let’s focus on promoting abortion.

Harris paints a picture of “freedom” as she announces her upcoming tour, when the reality is anything but that. Mary Szoch, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, shared with The Washington Stand, “Kamala Harris’s tour championing ‘reproductive freedom’ isn’t about freedom at all. True freedom isn’t doing whatever you want,” she argued, “it’s having the ability to do what is right.”

Szoch explained how “the pro-abortion industry has been working tirelessly for over 50 years to make certain that women feel as if they don’t have the ability to carry a child to term and care for that child later.” In the wake of this battle, she said, “We have seen countless examples of athletes being told to abort or lose their scholarship and employees being told to abort or lose their job. To say that this is somehow ‘freedom’ is laughable.”

So, what will this abortion tour accomplish, exactly? Well, Harris has characterized abortion as a “key issue” for the 2024 presidential election, which means she’s at least hoping to rack up votes for those who care about abortion as much as she does. But Szoch believes we can expect this tour to shed light on the tragic realities of abortion. She said, “During Kamala’s tour, I am certain that we will see heartbreaking stories of pregnant mothers in truly tragic circumstances talking about their desire to pay an abortionist to kill their unborn child.”

She continued, “As members of the pro-life movement, our hearts should break over the situations these women are in.” But ultimately, Szoch emphasized that the pro-life mission is to “change the situation” by offering alternative solutions. The focus has always been on life — for both the mother and the child.

“As vice president, Kamala Harris could choose to use her power for good,” Szoch concluded, “to decrease poverty, improve maternal health care, or even advance fetal medicine. Instead, she’s choosing to use her power to promote killing unborn children. How sad.”

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.