Vice President Harris makes historic visit to Planned Parenthood in St. Paul

Vice President Kamala Harris made a historic stop at Planned Parenthood's St. Paul facility with Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday in an election-year effort to underscore the commitment of President Joe Biden to reproductive care.

The vice president's office said the visit marks the first by a sitting president or vice president to a clinic that provides abortions, but Harris emphasized the broader scope of care provided there.

"Please do understand that when we talk about a clinic such as this it is absolutely about health care and reproductive health care so everyone get ready for the language: Uterus," she said. "That part of the body needs a lot of medical care, people."

Harris briefly toured the facility with Walz, the clinic's chief medical officer Dr. Sarah Traxler, President and CEO Ruth Richardson and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, who represents the area. She stopped for a few minutes to talk to the reporters packed into the reception room, to drive home the administration's commitment to restoring the abortion protections the U.S. Supreme Court scrapped when it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The vice president thanked the clinic employees, Walz, McCollum and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter for maintaining access to care, saying that in other states women lack similar care "within any reasonable distance" from where they live and she denounced those laws.

"I've heard stories of and met with women who've had miscarriages and women who were being denied emergency care because the health care providers there at an emergency room were afraid that, because of the laws in their state, that they could be criminalized, sent to prison for providing health care," she said. "So I'm here at this health care clinic to uplift the work that is happening in Minnesota as an example of what true leadership looks like."

Before departing Minnesota, she made two more stops: a campaign event and a surprise visit to the varsity and junior varsity pre-season girls' softball practice at St. Paul's Central High School, the mayor's alma mater.

At the clinic, Harris said it is always right for people to have access to the health care they need in an environment where they are treated with dignity. "Contraceptive care. That is the kind of care that happens here in addition to abortion care," she said.

Traxler also spoke at the news conference, saying that traveling to receive health care is intimidating and overwhelming for women. She spoke of a patient who drove "hundreds and hundreds of miles" in a blizzard to get an abortion. "Our new abortion landscape. It is dangerous and it is putting our patients and health care providers at severe risk," Traxler said.

The St. Paul facility, part of Planned Parenthood North Central States, provides health care and sex education for all regardless of whether they have insurance. Traxler said visits from patients who don't live in Minnesota have doubled since Roe was overturned.

The Harris visit drove home the extent to which Democrats will highlight their support for reproductive care in the 2024 election where the president and Harris face a tough re-election fight, likely against former President Donald Trump. In contrast, Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who overturned the 50-year-old Roe decision.

A week ago, Biden emphasized his commitment to reproductive freedom and care in his State of the Union Speech. Since then, Harris has been on a multi-state tour touting the administration's support for reproductive care.

"We have to be a nation that trusts women," she said.

Harris was asked to address the 19% of uncommitted voters in Minnesota's DFL presidential primary more than a week ago, but she stayed firmly on the topic of health care.

Minnesota has more abortion protections than most states. In 2023, the DFL-controlled Legislature and Walz codified abortion rights here.

Planned Parenthood North Central States also includes Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Dakotas ban abortion. Nebraska has a 12-week abortion ban. Iowa lawmakers convened a special session last year to pass a near total abortion ban that is on hold during a legal challenge.

More recently, an Alabama court ruling jeopardized IVF treatments in that state. Walz said he wants to move to protect that fertility procedure during the current legislative session.

During her heavily secured stop at Planned Parenthood, a few protesters with signs stood across the street with signs near the busy University Avenue and Vandalia Street intersection.

Scott Pike of Falcon Heights said he's been protesting in front of the clinic for a decade. He demonstrates, he said, because he believes life begins at conception and considers abortion to be murder.

"If I were still in the womb, I would have value," Pike said. "Everything was there to make me who I am today."

A passel of protesters was seen near her next stop, a campaign event at Coven, a co-working space in the Blair Arcade on the corner of Selby and Western avenues in St. Paul near Cathedral Hill.

The vice president spoke to about 100 women as part of the Women For Biden-Harris initiative. She praised the DFL accomplishments in the last legislative session, telling them they "have once again demonstrated to our nation just how much progress a Democratic trifecta can make."

She also talked about Biden's accomplishments, including forgiving some student loan debt, investments in female entrepreneurs, small business owners and limiting prescription drug costs for seniors.

After she finished, Walz led the crowd in a chant of "four more years."

At Central High School on Lexington Avenue near Interstate 94 in the historic Rondo Neighborhood, Harris was greeted by a chorus of "oh my gods" and excitement from the players in the gymnasium as they realized who she was.

She told the high school girls, who formed a circle around her, "you guys are the reason that I do what I do."

The vice president watched a some ground-ball drills and shagged a ball that went astray. "I'm really impressed," she said twice. One player, wearing a crimson Harvard sweatshirt exchanged a high-five with Harris and then looked down at her hand in seeming amazement, mouth agape, according to the pool report from the event.

The state GOP didn't respond to a request for comment, but Chairman David Hann has previously accused DFL leaders of supporting abortion up until the moment of birth.

Staff writer Eder Campuzano contributed to this report.