Kamala Harris talks abortion bans under Trump at Atlanta rally

What looked like a capacity crowd filled a ballroom inside Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on Friday afternoon in anticipation of United States Vice President and current Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The line outside of the arena snaked its way to the parking lot as supporters waited in the sun to see Harris, who was making her first campaign stop as a presidential candidate in Cobb County.

During the 2020 presidential election, current United States President Joseph R. Biden won Cobb County by nearly 60,000 votes (221,847-165,436), according to data from the Office of the Secretary of State.

Supporters like Deidre Brown and her daughter Vitalia Collins, who is not of voting age, said it was worth the wait. The pair had gone to support Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month and wore t-shirts that they bought from Black vendors there for the occasion.

“What brings me out today is because I want to focus on the moral values of the country,” Brown explained. “This candidate represents that and this is why I brought my daughter with me.”

The former California Senator and Attorney General has made several stops throughout Georgia before and after she moved to the top of the Democratic ticket. Harris was most recently in Coastal Georgia for a bus tour, where she and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz visited Savannah and Hinesville.

Georgia State Rep. Shea Roberts took the stage first and told her story of needing an abortion to save her own life when she was 37 years old. That procedure would not be available to her daughters today, she said. “Y’all, we’re not going back,” she said.

State Rep. Park Cannon also spoke to the crowd about the need for reproductive rights for women in Georgia and how difficult it has become to provide that care since the Dobbs Decision.

“Those of us who are historically marginalized are the most affected,” Cannon said.

There are over 80 counties in Georgia that do not have an OBGYN. Basic women’s healthcare is quickly becoming a privilege instead of the necessity that it once was. Georgia has one of the highest paternal mortality rates for Black women in the country.

“Women are dying across our state,” Cannon said. “This is why we need reproductive freedom champions in the White House. This is why I support Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Cannon said Republicans need to get out of American exam rooms and “get their hands off of our bodies.”

Dr. Keisha L. Reddick, a local OBGYN and mother of two daughters, also spoke. “Back here in Georgia we are left with few maternal options,” Reddick said. With permission, Reddick shared a story of a patient that had to travel to New York to get a procedure because of Georgia’s abortion laws.

“We must do everything to elect Vice President Harris and [Governor] Tim Walz,” Reddick said. “Lives depend on it.”

On Thursday night during a virtual rally, which was hosted by Oprah Winfrey and took place in Michigan, a crucial battleground state for both Harris and her opponent former President of the United States Donald Trump, Harris met the family of Amber Nicole Thurman.

Thurman, a Georgia resident, died during an abortion procedure after having gone into septic shock after waiting for 20 hours in 2022. Harris took time to re-tell Thurman’s story as an example of the type of situations that come with restrictions on reproductive care.

Harris got straight to the point, first thanking Reddick for providing reproductive care in the face of what she called “archaic laws” in Georgia.

“This election right here is the fight for the future,” Harris said. “And it is a fight for freedom. That includes the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.”

Harris did not mention her economic plan, which she has titled “Opportunity Economy,” during her speech. The economy has often been at the top of lists of voter concerns, but this rally was about reproductive rights and freedoms. Signs on the stage read “Trust Women” and “1 in 3 women lives under a Trump abortion ban.”

“I say to all women you are not alone and we stand with you,” Harris said. “And we will not be silent.”

There are only 46 days till election day and 25 days till early voting begins in Georgia.

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