Vice President Kamala Harris Visits Bryn Mawr

On Friday October 28th, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Bryn Mawr college. Her arrival marked an important political time in Pennsylvania, as the PA senate race currently dominates the United States political scene. Though part of a larger series of visits to political hotbed states ahead of the November 8 midterm, the purpose of Harris’s visit was to give a talk about reproductive rights, a timely issue considering Bryn Mawr’s status as a historically women’s college.

The Vice President’s (VP) visit was put on in conjunction with several other local leaders, including Dr. Valerie Arkoosh of the Montgomery Board of Commissioners and PA House Minority Leader Joanna McClinton. Admiral Rachel Levine, United States Assistant Secretary for Health, was also in attendance. The meeting began with short speeches by them, which set the stage for Vice-President Harris’s entrance later on.

Held in Goodhart Hall, Vice-President Harris’s talk was a notably lengthy affair, with the whole thing totaling nearly three hours including time spent going through the intense security. Secret Service agents were noticed around campus in the days leading up to the event, and blocked off the road behind Goodhart on the day of. As for the talk itself, it took the form of a discussion between VP Harris and Pennsylvania Representative Mary Gay Scanlon with actress Sophia Bush moderating, the two spoke of the importance of reproductive freedom in the United States. Harris went on to give anecdotal comments about the importance of free and safe abortion, while Gay Scanlon then took the lead to speak about how she has been a leader in advancing legislation in congress to protect reproductive rights.

Throughout the discussion, there was a strong element of patriotism, with the discussion centering around how reproductive freedom is a constitutional right. There was talk of how the implications of restricting abortion will affect issues like marriage equality or contraception. Harris also brought props- including a physical venn diagram, which amused audiences, further serving her purpose of rallying voters in battleground states since reproductive rights have become a state issue since Dobbs v. Jackson overturned Roe last June.

It was at this time that a student in the audience stood up and urged VP Harris to use more trans-inclusive language, as she and the others onstage had mainly been using the word “women” to refer to those who receive abortions. The student spoke to the stage one other time. This interruption was part of a larger culture of contention around Harris’s visit, as there were also students outside with signs protesting Harris’s support of Israel. These signs specifically harkened to Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist killed by the IDF last spring. Both of these events added some tension to Harris’s visit.

Harris then turned to speaking about the national implications of the Democrats winning the contentious PA senate seat. Harris then promised the audience the Women’s Health Protection Act, which Harris said would pass regardless of the filibuster if Democrats won the PA seat, as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Harris ended the discussion by reminding the audience of the misinformation surrounding reproductive rights that now circulates in the US post-Roe. Harris urged everyone to uplift people most prone to confusion by spreading correct information, speaking of sending federal dollars to the “safe haven” states where abortion is still legal.

Another key point of VP Harris’s discussion was the idea of coalition building. Harris urged the audience — and especially Bryn Mawr students in attendance — to build coalitions across different issue movements, citing the importance of bringing together activists from all sorts of issue circles to pick up the feminist movement and bring it forward. Harris reminded the audience that the greatest social movements came from coalition building, and that when facing division, coalition is the strongest weapon one can have, for everyone’s liberty is bound together.

In the closing remarks, VP Harris reminded the audience that the United States has a reputation to uphold, and protecting reproductive rights is part of that. To the young people in attendance, she encouraged them to continue their activism, ending the discussion by saying, “Do what you do, and I thank you.”