Local Reproductive Rights Organizers Protest Vice President’s “Reproductive Freedoms” Event in St. Paul, Calling for a Permanent Ceasefire
For Immediate Release: The Minnesota Abortion Action Committee (MNAAC) is currently protesting outside of Vice President Kamala Harris’s event at 165 Western Ave N Suite 8, St. Paul. With this protest, organizers in MNAAC aim to call attention to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, its particular impact on Palestinian women and girls, and Vice President Harris’s complicity in funding Israel’s military operations.
Over 31,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, 70% of them said to be women and children, with many more missing under rubble from destroyed buildings. These attacks have included strikes and raids on hospitals, aid centers, schools, places of worship, refugee camps, and countless civilian homes. Due to the collapse of the medical system in Gaza, women are undergoing Cesarean sections without anesthesia, miscarriages have increased by 300%, and women and girls are struggling to manage their menstrual health with no access to period products. The World Health Organization agreed in November 2023 that women and children are bearing the brunt of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“I’m here today as a Jew and a worker in the reproductive justice movement because I’m devastated in the way that the current administration is touting their alleged support for abortion access while funding an urgent reproductive justice crisis in Palestine,” says Leah Soule, a reproductive health worker and a member of Jewish Voices for Peace. “My reproductive justice and Jewish values call me to stand up to oppose the US funding of genocide in Gaza and build a liberated world where all people can have access to abortion, pregnancy care and also to safe and sustainable communities to raise their families in.”
Vice President Harris is visiting the Twin Cities today as a part of her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour, including the invite-only speaking engagement where MNAAC will be protesting and a stop at a local Planned Parenthood clinic. The Biden-Harris administration has made abortion and contraception access part of their campaign platform, but has been reluctant to embrace the demand of grassroots abortion rights activists, avoiding the use of the word “abortion” in campaign speeches.
“I’m tired of having my right to an abortion held over my head while bombs continue to fall on Gaza,” says Kristen Bledsoe, an organizer with MNAAC. “As a result of the decisions of the Biden-Harris administration and the endless supply of aid and weapons to Israel, Palestinian women and girls are experiencing horrific suffering, and we’re here to let Kamala Harris know that the reproductive rights movement stands with Palestine.”