LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Harris Walz campaign Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour made a stop in Lansing today. The tour has traveled through battleground states to highlight campaign goals to support reproductive healthcare protections.
Gwen Walz and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel took the podium today at Lansing Community College to talk about reproductive rights and what they believe is at stake in this election.
“Everyone should have the freedom to build our family as we choose or, and this is just as important, we should have the freedom to decide not to have children at all too,” Walz said. “We are doing this by lifting up powerful stories and sharing why this fight is just so personal for so many of us.”
Hadley Duvall, a 22-year-old from Kentucky and a survivor of sexual assault has been traveling with the bus to share her story. At 12 years old Duvall found out she was pregnant from her father, and in 2014 she could still see a doctor in Kentucky to receive an abortion.
“I didn’t know what that meant. I was 12. But I knew that that meant I would be ok.” Duvall said. “But now? Women and girls across this country don’t get to hear that they don’t get to know that they will be ok.”
While Former President Trump takes credit for the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, he has said he believes in exceptions for rape, incest, and protecting the life of the mother. He has also said he supports IVF treatments.
Nessel said the fear major decisions like Roe v. Wade would be overturned during Trump’s presidency was one of the reasons she ran for office. During the event, she shared her experience starting a family using IVF. She said that after finding out she was pregnant with triplets, she was told she would have to abort one of them to keep herself and the other two children alive and healthy.
“I never expected that to happen to me. I never expected to have to make that choice, but I thank god that I had the ability to do it.” Nessel said. “Without federal protections, those rights could disappear. We don’t have a Supreme Court on our side, and we need to have Congress. We need to have a President like Kamala Harris making sure that we are codifying those rights in the federal law, and that is the only way that we will truly have protections here in the state of Michigan and all across this country.”
Different guests have appeared at stops across the country to share similar stories, and encourage voters to cast their ballot for Harris and state and local representatives who are in favor of reinstating Roe v. Wade protections.
The bus tour is expected to make over 50 stops before November 5 to continue to win over voters in battleground states.
