(Atlanta) In a particularly virulent speech, Kamala Harris attacked Donald Trump on Friday as being the “architect” of the decline in abortion rights and the resulting tragedies, while in several states, Americans begin to vote early.
Published at 5:54 p.m.
Mandel NGAN with Paul NOLP in Arlington and Aurélia END in Washington
Agence France-Presse
In the hotly contested state of Georgia, the 59-year-old vice president has vowed to defend abortion, which has been severely restricted or eliminated by several southern states following a 2022 Supreme Court ruling.
According to the polls, this is a particularly strong argument for the Democrat, 46 days before an election which, according to experts, should be marked by a record divergence between the female vote, more favorable to Kamala Harris, and the male vote, more oriented towards Donald Trump.
“One in three women in America lives in a state where abortion is banned because of Trump,” Harris said at a rally in Atlanta, recalling that the former Republican president said he was “proud” to have been behind the reversal of jurisprudence by the highest American court through his appointments of conservative judges.
PHOTO ELIJAH NOUVELAGE, REUTERS
“One in three women in America lives in a state where abortion is banned because of Trump.”
“These hypocrites claim to be talking to you about what is in the best interest of women and children,” the Democrat said, accusing Republicans of fighting abortion rights in the name of defending life, while “neglecting” the problems of perinatal mortality or access to care for pregnant women and mothers.
An “avoidable” death
The candidate then recalled, in a serious tone, the fate of Amber Thurman, 28, who developed rare complications after taking an abortion pill and who died in August 2022, in Georgia, after not receiving treatment in time.
According to a report on the ProPublica website, an official commission in that state ruled that her death, which was “preventable,” was due to the delay in performing the surgery that could have saved her, and that the delay was the result of the passage of a law criminalizing the procedure in question — a curettage of the uterus.
Kamala Harris led the crowd in chanting Amber Thurman’s name, and lambasted the “unbearable judgment” of women seeking abortions, “making them feel like criminals.”
“This is a health crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis,” said the vice president, much more combative on the subject than Joe Biden was.
The American president, whom she replaced at short notice in the race for the White House in July, avoided saying the word “abortion” as much as possible.
His Republican opponent is traveling to Miami on Friday for a fundraising meeting closed to the press. Money remains the lifeblood of a campaign that is expected to see the candidates spend a total of $1 billion.
The outcome of the presidential election remains more uncertain than ever, with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris neck and neck in several of the seven key states where everything will probably be decided.
Among them is Georgia, won by Joe Biden in 2020 with less than 12,000 votes ahead of the Republican billionaire. He is now being prosecuted by the courts in that state for the pressure he is accused of having exerted to reverse the result.
The Georgia Election Commission on Friday approved a new rule requiring poll workers to hand-count ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election in the southeastern U.S. state where Donald Trump contested his 2020 defeat.
Because of the tiny gap that separated him four years ago from Democrat Joe Biden, the Republican, once again a candidate for the White House, had requested several recounts of the votes. He has still not recognized his defeat.
The rules adopted Friday call for a manual count of votes in addition to those carried out by machines, which could delay the publication of results in this key state.
Early voting
While the election itself will take place on November 5, America is actually already starting to vote. Polling stations opened Friday in three states that offer the option of physically going to the polls early.
The aim of this arrangement is to improve voter turnout by allowing people who are unable to do so due to personal circumstances to vote and to reduce crowds on election day.
The three states affected are Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota.
“It’s good to have early voting, to give people lots of opportunities to vote. I’m a big proponent of it, to get as many people voting as possible,” Madison Granger, a candidate in a local election in Arlington, a Virginia city bordering Washington, told AFP.
Also at a polling place in Arlington on Friday, Michelle Kilkenny, 55, said she was excited about the start of the election. “I vote to encourage people to vote. Voting early, especially on the first day, helps the campaign and increases the level of enthusiasm,” she said.
