“This is basic human rights”: Walz hits Vance on abortion

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz slammed JD Vance and Donald Trump’s platform insisting that abortion ought to be left to the states. 

At the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, Walz called the rollback of abortion in conservative states a denial of “basic human rights” to control one’s own body and argued that abortion bans were killing women around the country.

“That’s not how this works. This is basic human rights. We have seen maternal mortality skyrocket in Texas, outpacing many other countries in the world. This is about healthcare,” Walz said. “How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography.”

Vance, who supported a nationwide abortion ban before joining the Trump ticket, argued that a “big country” demanded diverse laws on reproductive rights. Trump appointed three of the six Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and kickstarted the most-recent wave of strict abortion restrictions in places like Georgia and Texas. 

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Walz pushed through legislation in Minnesota to preserve the right to reproductive care and, on Tuesday, he questioned the impact of leaving abortion up to the states.

“There’s a young woman named Amber Thurman, she happened to be in Georgia, a restrictive state. She had to travel a long distance to North Carolina to try and get her care. Amber Thurman died in that journey,” Walz said. “There’s a very real chance had Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota she would be alive today.”

Walz countered that he and Harris were not pro-abortion, as Vance said, but “pro-women. We are pro-freedom to make your own choice.” The Minnesota governor also slammed the Project 2025 vision for reproductive care, a platform that is closely tied to Trump and Vance.

“Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry. It’s going to make it more difficult, if not impossible, to get contraception and limit access, if not eliminate access to infertility treatments,” Walz said.