2-3. Defending Abortion Access

2. When Texas enacted targeted restrictions on abortion providers to block the safe, legal access to abortion in violation of Roe v. Wade, Harris — as the attorney general of California — joined a brief that urged the United States Supreme Court to protect abortion access. (The name of that case was Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt — and we WON.)

3. As a presidential candidate, Harris proposed a plan that would require some states to get preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice before abortion restrictions could go into effect. “We cannot tolerate … going backward and not understanding women have agency, women have value, women have authority to make decisions about their own lives and their own bodies.”

5-6. Fighting for Health Equity

5. Harris has worked to address the health inequities and systemic bias that contribute to high rates of maternal mortality in Black communities, saying that Black mothers are “facing a health crisis that is driven in part by implicit bias in our health care system. We must take action to address this issue, and we must do it with the sense of urgency it deserves.”

6. In the U.S. Senate, Harris has cosponsored the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2020 — a comprehensive set of regulations and investments to address the crisis in Black women’s maternal mortality. 

8. Speaking Up for Immigrants

A daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris has fiercely defended immigrant and refugee communities in the U.S. In her maiden speech as a senator, she spoke out against Trump’s Muslim Ban and other executive orders targeting immigrants — saying Trump had “created deep uncertainty and pain for our refugee and immigrant communities.” Harris has supported clean passage of the DREAM Act — and wrote legislation to lift the ban on DACA recipients working in Congress.