Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a roundtable discussion with faith leaders in Los Angeles, Monday, June 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

By EEW Magazine Online // Women’s Rights

A recently leaked draft opinion suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide has been at the forefront of the national conversation.

As part of an ongoing effort to get faith leaders on board with protecting reproductive rights, Vice President Kamala Harris held a roundtable Monday with leadership representing various faiths.

“We need faith,” said the vice president in her opening remarks in Los Angeles, CA.

“I know that no matter the differences among us in this society, we have so much more in common than what separates us. And I think most people, regardless of who they are, would agree, we need faith in each other, in our nation, and in our future,” she added.

Stressing the importance of unity and collaboration is part of the Biden administration’s strategy to drum up more support for abortion rights. As it stands now, responses to the abortion debate, even among Christians, is mixed.

New Pew Research shows that “relatively few Americans on either side of the debate take an absolutist view on the legality of abortion.”

Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (19%) say that abortion should be legal in all cases, with no exceptions. Fewer (8%) say abortion should be illegal in every case, without exception. By contrast, 71% either say it should be mostly legal or mostly illegal or say there are exceptions to their blanket support for, or opposition to, legal abortion.

Harris believes the debate has nothing to do with faith and everything to do with rights.

“Basically, the premise of Roe and power of Roe is it is about saying that people should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies, that women should have that right and have unfettered access to reproductive healthcare,” explained Harris.

If a decision to overrule Roe passed, it would lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states. But it’s unclear if the draft represents the court’s final word on the matter — opinions often change in ways big and small in the drafting process.

The conversation around reproductive rights, according to Harris, “requires that we discuss whether we value the concept of self-determination – the ability of an individual to make decisions about their own life and the future of their lives, and the choices that will directly impact so many other choices.”

It remains to be seen if her argument is compelling enough to sway pro-life faith leaders. The vice president also raised that the Louisiana legislature passed a bill that would ban abortion even in cases of rape and incest, saying the bill illustrates that there is a clear and imminent threat to the shared principle of allowing women to make decisions about their own bodies.

Harris also touched on the gun violence that has been plaguing our nation, while thanking faith leaders for the important role they play in working toward healing, hope, and unity in their congregations and communities.

Participants, all from California, included: Pastor Demetries Edwards, Pastor, 23rd Avenue Church of God; Rabbi Dara Frimmer, Senior Rabbi, Temple Isaiah; Rev. Edgar Boyd, Senior Minister, First AME Church; Nitasha Kaur Sawhney, Sikh civil rights advocate and lawyer; Edina Lekovic, UCLA Community Scholar in Residence, Islamic Studies Program; Claire Lipschultz, VP of Board of Directors, National Council of Jewish Women; Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor, Third Baptist Church; Jackie Dupont Walker, Director, Social Action Commission, AME Church; Reverend Dr. Young Lee Hertig, Executive Director, Innovative Space for Asian American Christianity; Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard, Assistant Director of Community and Public Engagement, USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture.