U.S. presidential hopeful Harris to unveil plan to protect abortion rights

FILE PHOTO – U.S. Senator Kamala Harris holds her first organizing event in Los Angeles as she campaigns in the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination race in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 19, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

(Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will unveil a new plan to protect abortion rights on Tuesday, joining fellow White House hopefuls pushing back against Republican-backed state laws that restrict a woman’s right to end a pregnancy.

The U.S. senator from California says that if elected president, she will force states with a history of hostility toward Roe v. Wade – the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a woman’s right to an abortion – to first obtain approval from the U.S. Justice Department before a law restricting abortion could take effect.

Harris will announce her plan on Tuesday night to an audience at a live town hall in Spartanburg, South Carolina, aired on MSNBC, her campaign said in a statement. South Carolina is one of the early states in the presidential candidate nomination competition starting early next year.

The proposal comes amid an intensifying national debate on abortion rights, as 23 Democrats seek to become the candidate to take on Republican President Donald Trump in next year’s election.

Earlier this month, Alabama approved one of the strictest abortion laws in the United States. It would make abortion illegal in nearly all cases, including those of rape and incest.

Several other Republican-controlled states have recently passed so-called “heartbeat” laws, which outlaw abortion if a doctor is able to detect a fetal heartbeat.

Other Democratic candidates, including U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, also have unveiled plans this month to protect abortion rights.

Under Harris’ plan, a state with a history of violating the Roe decision will have to prove that any new law or practice does not end or curtail a woman’s right to choose an abortion.

The Harris plan is modeled on former preclearance provisions under the Voting Rights Act, which were in place to protect voters from laws deemed hostile to a citizen’s ability to cast a ballot.

Reporting by Tim Reid; editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis

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source: reuters.com