CNN DANA BASH INTERVIEWS KAMALA HARRIS - full countdown to Election 2024 WALZ harris interview RWd

vice president thank you so much for uh having me here you were on a plane when the Supreme Court overturned R versus W as the highest ranking woman ever elected in US history what was going through your mind at that moment well so I was on Air Force 2 heading to Aurora Illinois to talk about maternal Health we were um with Lauren Underwood with with the chair of Judiciary dick Durban Senate Judiciary we were headed there to unveil a plan of based on the work we've been doing to ensure that women receive the kind of support they need during and post pregnancy and um you know we thought that the decision would come down sometime soon but not at that moment and I was shocked and um you know it's one thing when you know something's going to happen it's another thing when it actually happens and I just actually turned to CNN and I couldn't believe it I couldn't believe it um because they actually did it and and here's what they did they the court actually took a constitutional right that has been recognized for half a century and took it from the women of America that's shocking when you think about it in terms of what that means in terms of democratic principles in terms of the ideals upon which we were founded about Liberty about Freedom um you know I thought about it as you know a parent we have two children who are in their 20s a son and a daughter I thought about it as a God parent of teenagers I thought of it as an aunt of of of preschool children and a woman yourself and a woman myself and the daughter of a woman and a granddaughter of a woman and you know my husband and I are actually talking about it we have a a 23-year-old and my mother-in-law is in her 80s our daughter will not know the rights for the for the amount of time that my mother-in-law knew these rights which is the right that that should be well settled that a woman should have to make decisions about her own body and when we think about it everyone has something at risk on this first of all if you are a parent of sons do think about what this means for the life of your son and what that will mean in terms of the choices he will have do think about it in the context of the fact that they they wrote this decision including you concurring opinions that suggests that other rights such as the freedom to make decisions about when you were going to start a family the freedom and the right to make decision decisions about contraception iuds um what this is going to mean in terms of inval fertilization let me ask you about that because jce Thomas this is what you're referring to did write a concurring opinion saying the court should reconsider other cases uh of president that protect same-sex marriage contraception uh intimacy and more do you think that the Supreme Court is on a path to reverse those as well I definitely believe this is not over I do I think he just said the quiet part out loud and I think that is why we all must really understand the significance of what just happened this is profound and and and the way that this decision has come down has been so driven I think by the politics of the issue versus what should be the values that we play on on freedom and liberty in our country right the right to privacy um let's think of this in the context of the laws that are being passed in States Dana in 13 states by my count they will not allow a woman to have access to reproductive health and to an abortion if she is the victim of rap ancest so let me tell you something as a former prosecutor who specialized in crimes of violence against women and girls in particular child sexual assault and rape the idea that after a woman has endured such violence to her body that she would not have the freedom and authority to decide whether she wanted to continue with a pregnancy that is a result of an act of violence is Absol absolutely Unthinkable so be because you are now the vice president of the United States part of of an Administration that is pledging to fight back to find ways to protect uh women's rights to abortion I want to ask you some of the things that are kind of out there that some of your former female uh Senators uh Senate colleagues are asking the administration to do uh will the administration actively challenge state laws that make it a crime for someone to help a woman travel to another state for an abortion so the president um rightly last week when the decision came down indicated quite unig unambiguously that we will do everything within our power as an Administration through the executive branch to ensure that women have access to the medication they need um and which has been by the way FDA approved and that they will have freedom of travel and that that travel should be unrestricted restricted and you're going to do that through the courts if need be I am sure that that that our department of justice is going to do that based on every statement that the attorney general has made can the administration expand abortion access or abortion Services on Federal Land meaning provide the access on Federal Land that might be in and around states that ban abortion I think that what is most important right now is that we ensure that the restrictions that the states are trying to put up um that would prohibit a woman from exercising what we still maintain is her right that we do everything we can to empower women to not only seek but to receive the care where it is available is a federal land one of those options I mean it's not right now what we are discussing but I will say that when I think about what is happening in terms of the states we have to also recognize Dana that we are 130 odd days away from an election which is going to include Senate races right part of the issue here is that the court has acted now Congress needs to act but we if you count the votes don't appear to have the votes in the Senate well there's an election happening in 130 odd days I'm taking for example thinking of of a senate race in Georgia or in North Carolina there's a the senate race coming up just in a couple weeks in Colorado and we need to change the balance and have Pro Choice legislators who have the power to make decisions about whether this constitutional right will be in law right we say codified put it in law so that there will be no ambiguity about it and I want to ask you about that in one second just a couple of more questions because what I'm hearing and you probably are too is what can this Democratic Administration do right now with any executive power that the president has uh can the administration actually increase access to medication abortion I think we're pretty clear that to the extent that we can we will there's no question about that because again it is FDA approved and if it is prescribed if it that that a woman should be able to have access to it unfettered and what about the idea of Financial Resources some form of voucher for travel child care services other forms of support for people for women seeking abortions in States where it's not legal but they just don't have the means to go elsewhere I think you're asking a very important Point making a very important point which is what are the details are going to go into ensuring that women have the ability to actually uh travel um without impairment and we know that on this issue women who have access to resources will probably be far less impacted by this decision than women who don't have resources so this is something that we are looking at because we know for example in terms of how this is going to actually impact real people over half of women who who receive abortions in America are moms that means that if they're going to have to travel they've got to find daycare and pay for it it means that they will if they are working which most are they're going to have to have time from work and if they don't have paid leave they're going to have to figure out how to afford it it means that they may have to put up money for a train or a bus or a plane much less hotel and so we want to make sure that there does not result um extreme disparities or any disparities based on who can receive care based on how much money they've got and you heard her talk about the election coming up in 2022 and Pamela I asked her what I'm hearing from a lot of Dem