California Sen. Kamala Harris made a number of dubious claims and unrealistic promises in her presidential campaign announcement, but one line in particular stood out.
“I’m running to fight for an America … Where reproductive rights are not just protected by the Constitution of the United States but guaranteed in every state,” Harris said.
As a dog whistle to the extreme fringes of the pro-abortion lobby, the timing was significant. Just a few days prior to her announcement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) signed his state’s controversial “40-week bill” legalizing abortion up to the moment of birth.
And on the same day as Harris’s speech, Delegate Kathy Tran (D-Va.) would introduce a 40-week bill of her own and infamously admit the bill would allow an abortion for as flimsy of a reason as “mental health” while a woman was dilating and about to give birth. In an ill-advised attempt to provide Tran with some cover, Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam went on to give a defense for infanticide.
While Harris has thus far avoided wading into the national debate over the New York and Virginia abortion bills — the privilege of being a Democratic media darling — there’s no doubt that her demand that abortion rights be “guaranteed in every state” was a nod toward her support for the 40-week bill.
In a crowded Democratic primary, Harris will need to win over the pro-abortion constituency, especially big money PACs like Planned Parenthood Action. This was her way of letting them know that she supports the Democratic Party’s peculiar institution in every state in the union — as well as at every state of gestation.
Plus, Harris has a radical record of abortion advocacy to go with her rhetoric that would make even Hillary Clinton blush.
In 2016, in a stunning conflict of interest while running for U.S. senator and while receiving campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood, then-California Attorney General Harris weaponized the criminal justice system against pro-life activist David Daleiden, even going as far as obtaining a search warrant and seizing his personal property. Daleiden made waves that year when he released a shocking series of undercover videos that showed Planned Parenthood executives discussing the harvesting and sale of baby body parts for profit.
Harris’s record as a senator should keep her abortion industry friends happy as well. She earned a 100 percent voting score from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) in 2017, mostly due to her opposition of President Trump’s judicial nominees. She has helped vote down two key pro-life bills: the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks, and also the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, a bill that would have protected Americans from paying for abortion on demand through either their tax dollars or their insurance premiums.
She also signed on to the Women’s Health Protection Act, a euphemistically named bill that would strike down state limitations on abortion and enshrine third-trimester abortions into law.
And this week, she may add an exclamation mark to her already gaudy pro-abortion resume. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) plans to force a floor vote on his Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a bill that would make it illegal for health care practitioners to fail to “exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or an attempted abortion.” Incredibly, Planned Parenthood opposes this bill, so it’s likely Harris will, too.
At this point, it’s pretty clear that Kamala Harris is a one-issue candidate. She supports abortion on demand, paid for by the taxpayer, up to the moment of birth. She supports infanticide — the murder of live children outside the womb. These are non-negotiables for her. And as the Democratic Party lurches frighteningly leftward, openly embracing the outrageous abortion extremism that has defined Harris’s entire tenure as a politician, these appear to have become non-negotiables for the entire Democratic Party as well. But will this extremism fly with voters in the 2020 general election? That remains to be seen.
Jon Schweppe (@JonSchweppe) is the director of government affairs at the American Principles Project, a nonprofit think tank and political advocacy organization committed to defending the fundamental American principle of human dignity.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.