Harris slams Trump after ex-prez pledged to protect women 'whether they like it or not'

With just a few days left in the upcoming 2024 US presidential elections, Vice President Kamala Harris slammed former President Donald Trump for saying that he would protect women “whether they like it or not”. The Democratic presidential nominee insisted that her Republican rival’s remarks showed that he does not understand women’s “agency, their authority, their right and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies."

“I think it’s offensive to everybody, by the way,” Harris said before she set out to spend the day campaigning in the western swing states of Arizona and Nevada. It is pertinent to note that during his time in office, Trump appointed three justices to the US Supreme Court who formed the conservative majority that overturned federal abortion rights.

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The business-mogul-turned-politician garnered major eyeballs after he said that he would “protect women” and make sure they would not be “thinking about abortion”. While addressing a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump mentioned that his aides had urged him to stop using the phrase because it was “inappropriate”. “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I am going to protect them,’" he remarked.  

Harris lambasts Trump

A day after Trump’s provocative statement, Harris said that Trump’s remark was part of a pattern of troubling statements he made throughout the campaign trial. “This is just the latest on a long series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency,” she said.

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In the past, both Trump and the Republicans have struggled over how to navigate through the issue of abortion rights. In the past, Trump has given contradictory answers, saying that women should be punished for having abortions. He frequently bragged about appointing justices who overturned the Roe v Wade.

During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump maintained that if elected he would appoint justices to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade and called himself “pro-life”. However, in recent weeks he has promised to veto a national abortion ban, after repeatedly refusing to make such a pledge. Earlier this year, Trump said that access to abortion should depend on the states and called some of the laws made by states “too tough”.

With inputs from agencies.