Harris added ‘how dare they’ line to EMILY’s List speech

Vice President Harris personally added the line “How dare they?” to the speech she delivered on abortion rights at the EMILY’s List gala on Tuesday night, according to a source familiar with the address.

The impassioned line has reverberated throughout the week, with conservatives including former Vice President Mike Pence firing back. Democrats have cheered the vice president’s speech, given the night after the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning the Roe v. Wade decision first leaked.

“Women in almost half the country could see their access to abortion severely limited,” Harris said in the EMILY’s List speech. “In 13 of those states, women would lose access to abortion immediately and outright. Those Republican leaders who are trying to weaponize the use of the law against women, well we say “How dare they! How dare they tell a woman what she can do and cannot do with her own body. How dare they!” 

Sources say the late addition to the speech, which had been largely written before news of the high court draft surfaced, is indicative of what the public will continue to hear from Harris in the coming months.  

“She feels very passionately about it,” said a source close to Harris, highlighting the vice president’s history of discussing the topic. 

In recent years, Harris has frequently turned to the issue, including at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and when campaigning for president in 2019. 

“This is the sixth debate we have had in this presidential cycle,” she said during one presidential debate that year, adding that there hasn’t been any discussion “on women’s access to health care.” 

Sources say Harris will continue to discuss abortion rights at a frequent clip. “She will talk about it more regularly than she has talked about it before,” the source said, adding that Harris’s public face on the issue is “definitely more defined” than President Biden’s.

“For her, this isn’t a pivot moment,” the source said. “This is a continuation.”

In a commencement speech this weekend at Tennessee State University, Harris is expected to talk about the political moment the country faces — including on abortion rights. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has indicated that the draft is authentic, though he said it did not represent the court’s final decision. The formal opinion is expected this summer.

Democrats say that the forthcoming abortion decision is already showing signs of animating base voters ahead of the midterm elections. They’re hoping it will sway independents and suburban women.

“I think everyone should be talking to the public about this,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “It takes repetition. That’s what the other side understands, and we need everyone’s voice repeating, repeating, repeating.”

Lake mentioned that Harris as well as Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will be effective messengers for the party on the issue of abortion. She also suggested that Democrats elevate the voices of women who will be affected by restrictive abortion laws and who can talk about their experiences. 

Biden has not given a formal speech on abortion yet but commented on the news in a back-and-forth with reporters earlier this week. Warren, meanwhile, attracted attention for her fiery remarks alongside protesters outside the Supreme Court. 

Fielding questions from reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki signaled the White House expects Biden, Harris and other Democrats to lean into the abortion issue. 

“His view is that it should be all of the above: him, the vice president, any others,” Psaki said.

She said that the president believes restrictive abortion laws are another example of the “ultra MAGA agenda” pushed by some Republicans, referring to former President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Some political observers say Harris seems like the natural choice to use the megaphone on the issue. The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin said Harris “seemed to find her voice and her gravitas” when speaking about the issue at the EMILY’s List gala. 

“Thought Harris used the word ‘abortion’ just four times, she spoke with righteous anger and steely determination,” Rubin said. 

Harris has juggled a difficult and expansive portfolio as vice president, including spearheading the government’s effort to address the root causes of migration to the southern border and pressing for action on voting rights. It’s too early to tell how prominently the abortion issue will fit into that portfolio. 

“It’s a hard assignment, but I do think that might be where a lot of the core messaging will come from,” said Larry Gostin, public health law professor at Georgetown University.