‘Attempt to Claim Ownership Over Human Bodies’: Kamala Harris Likens Roe v. Wade Reversal to Slavery

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the annual Essence Festival in New Orleans on 2 July, days after the US Supreme Court’s repeal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that prevented states from adopting laws limiting the right for abortion.

Vice President Kamala Harris has triggered backlash online after seeming to liken the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade - the landmark 1973 ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide for almost 50 years - to slavery.

“We have to recognize we're a nation that was founded on certain principles that are — that are grounded in the concept of freedom and liberty. We also know that we've had a history in this country of government trying to claim ownership over human bodies. And we had supposedly evolved from that time and that way of thinking. So this is very problematic on so many levels,” Harris said while addressing the crowd at the Essence Festival in New Orleans on Saturday.

Vice President #KamalaHarris speaking on the Supreme Court's Roe V. Wade decision at @Essence Fest.#RoeVWade #essencefestival pic.twitter.com/cfRyj1rywi

— Shaquille Omari (@shaq_omari) July 3, 2022

The annual music festival was started in 1995, originally as a one-off event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Essence, a magazine aimed primarily towards African-American women.

Although Harris did not explicitly reference slavery, she was believed to have been indicating to the United States' grim history of legally enslaving human beings, mainly Africans and African Americans.

“Millions of women in America will go to bed tonight without access to the healthcare and reproductive care that they had this morning… Without access to the same healthcare or reproductive healthcare that their mothers and grandmothers had for 50 years. Today's decision on that theory, then, calls into question other rights that we thought were settled,” the VP added.

Her remarks were made after the highest court in the country overturned the 1973 landmark ruling on 24 June that "protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.”

Users online immediately responded to the Vice President’s remarks, slamming Harris’s stance.

We are now living in the darkest times in America’s history because of the corruption within the treasonous Democrat Party.

— Mick McKenzie (@Mick553) July 4, 2022

Hey, Kamala: Slavery happened because elites in power decided a group of people were less than human so they then had the right to own and kill Africans. Today we have a group of elites who see unborn babies as less than human, and you actively fight for the right to kill them.

— Rick Yuzzi (@RickYuzzi) July 3, 2022

Who cares what she thinks. She is a disgrace to this nation.

— Tony Mallett (@TonyMallett8) July 3, 2022

Did anyone ask her who owns the life of the unborn child?

— Mouse That Roared (@MiceThatRoar16) July 3, 2022

Which is ironic because those who support abortion with no limitations claim ownership over the unborn human body as the reason to end its life.

— Tamara_swindy (@tamaraswizzle) July 3, 2022

Yup. Because at 6 weeks embryos still have tails. This isn't about saving "babies" at this stage

— V. Sears (@Sueshuz) July 3, 2022

Nothing denies a person's humanity like treating them as an inanimate incubator.

— kathykattenburg (@kathykattenburg) July 4, 2022

Some internet users reminded Kamala Harris of her heritage, as she is the daughter of an Indian-American mother and a Jamaican-American father.

This incredibly entitled person does not want to reflect upon caste systems. She has an unflattering legacy she might have to explain.

— SmithWinston1984 (@SmithWinston44) July 4, 2022

Weren't some of them claiming ownership on her father's side of the family?

— Suzy Que (@SuzyQue27155082) July 3, 2022

This comes as mass demonstrations have swept the US following the ruling that now grants states the authority to ban or restrict abortions. So-called trigger laws - bans designed to take effect with the overturning of Roe v. Wade – have been rendered enforceable in some states following the US Supreme Court's ruling, while in others, the bans await official action.

Restrictive abortion laws are in effect in at least four states: Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to CNN.

Still awaiting state action for the governor to certify the Supreme Court's decision are Wyoming, North Dakota, Idaho, Tennessee and Texas. In over a dozen states, legal fights are underway over abortion bans and limits on the procedure.

In the immediate aftermath of the ruling, Democrats vowed to pass a federal law enshrining the right for abortions should they sweep the midterm November elections.