Kamala Harris Blasts SCOTUS, Says Marriage Equality Is on the Line

Speaking to a crowd in Plainfield, Illinois, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed today's overturning of Roe v. Wade.

"Today, as of right now, as of this minute, we can only talk about what Roe v. Wade protected," she began. "Past tense."

She said that millions of women in the country would go to bed tonight without the reproductive care they had woken up with this morning.

"Without access to the same reproductive healthcare that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years," she said. "This is the first time in the history of our nation that a Constitutional right has been taken from the people of America."

Harris explained that the U.S. Supreme Court took away a privacy right.

"Think about it. As the right for each person to make intimate decisions about heart and home. Decisions about the right to start a family, including contraception such as IUDs, [and] the morning after pill. Decisions about whether to have a child. Decisions to marry the person you love -- Obergefell v. Hodges. Loving v. Virginia."

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The vice president questioned the Court's claim that abortion was not deeply rooted in American history.

"In holding that it is not deeply rooted in our history, today's decision on that theory then calls into question other rights that we thought were settled, such as the right to use birth control, the right to same-sex marriage, the right to interracial marriage," Harris warned.

"The great aspiration of our nation has been to expand freedom. But the expansion of freedom clearly is not inevitable," Harris said.

Additionally, she reiterated President Joe Biden's rallying cry for people to go to the polls in the fall. Local, state, and federal Democratic candidates are the only ones who can fully protect civil rights, they said.

"The strength of our nation has always been that we move forward. Today, I invite all people to stand together in defense of one of the most fundamental ideals and principles that for generations we have held dear, which is that fundamental principle about the importance of liberty. To stand for liberty, to stand for freedom, to stand for self-determination, and for the right to privacy," the vice president said.

She concluded her remarks defiantly: "You have the power to elect leaders who will defend and protect your rights. And as the president said earlier today, with your vote, you can act, and you have the final word.

"So this is not over," Harris vowed.