SELMA, Ala. — Nearly 60 years after the Selma to Montgomery marches that helped spark the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke in Selma Sunday attempting to connect those events to the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that has disrupted fertility treatment across the state.
Labeling the ruling as just one of Alabamians’ “fundamental freedoms under assault,” Harris laid blame for the decision on “extremists” who “propose and pass laws that attack the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.”
“Here in Alabama, they attacked the freedom to use (in vitro fertilization) treatment; women and couples denied the ability to fulfill their dream of having a child,” Harris said, standing in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where in 1965, around 600 protesters were brutally attacked by police.
“And consider the irony! On one hand, these extremists tell women they do not have the freedom to end an unwanted pregnancy, and the other hand, these extremists tell women they do not have the freedom to start a family.”
On Feb. 16, the Alabama Supreme Court issued an 8-1 ruling that, in the case of destroyed frozen embryos, responsible parties could be held liable under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
In the court’s ruling, two justices interpreted existing state law – citing both the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and a 2018 constitutional amendment that affirmed state policy as recognizing “the rights of unborn children – as making no distinction between frozen embryos and children.
“Let us agree, one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply-held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body,” Harris continued, speaking to a crowd of well-over a thousand.
Lawmakers have now scrambled to shield IVF providers from legal liabilities, with final votes expected this week.
Harris did not comment on lawmakers’ efforts to address IVF availability, but did rail against several other state laws in both Alabama and across the country that she argued to be a “full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms.”
In particular, Harris named the “assaults on the freedom to vote” as among the most consequential, and singled out efforts to restrict absentee ballots.
“In this moment, we are witnessing a full-on attack on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms, starting with the freedom that unlocks all others, the freedom to vote,” she said.
“Today, in states across our nation, extremists pass laws to ban drop boxes, limit early voting and restrict absentee ballots.”
Recently passed in the Alabama Senate, Senate Bill 1 would make it a crime to send pre-filled absentee ballot applications, and a felony for paid efforts to do such. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, has championed the bill as a measure to prevent ballot harvesting and strengthen election integrity.
To push back on bills like SB1 and other proposals she argued to be an “attack” on “the freedom to vote,” Harris, along with U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, who also spoke in Selma Sunday, vowed to push for the passage of two pieces of legislation.
“In the face of these assaults on the freedom to vote, and in honor of all those who crossed this bridge, President (Joe) Biden and I will continue to demand that the United States Congress pass the Freedom to Vote Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Harris said.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, carried by Sewell, would restore federal oversight to state-level voting policy changes, which were compromised after the 2013 Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder. The Freedom to Vote Act would set national standards for voting, including minimum early voting periods, no-excuse absentee ballots, and automatic and same-day voter registration.
Speaking ahead of Harris, Sewell pledged to advocate for the two bills, and noted the significance of advocating for expanding voting rights on the same bridge where protesters successfully marched in support of the Voting Rights Act nearly six decades prior.
“Everywhere we look, old battles have become new again as extremists look to erase our history, silence our voices, and roll back our hard-fought freedoms… nowhere is that more evident than at the ballot box,” Sewell said.
“Never did I think that the cause for which those foot soldiers had would become our cause too, 59 years later. They were bludgeoned on a bridge in 1965 for the equal right of all Americans to vote. The fact that 59 years later it’s in peril means that we’ve got work to do.”
Known as Bloody Sunday, the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches were joined by Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, and were largely in protest of voter suppression laws in Dallas County. Selma voters in 1965 were required to pass comprehension tests and pay a poll tax, requirements that disenfranchised Black and poor white voters by the thousands.