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July 22 (UPI) -- Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday called the Supreme Court's recent decision overturning Roe vs. Wade "wrongheaded" and said religion and abortion rights don't have to be incompatible. She made the comments during an appearance before the National Urban League in Washington, D.C.
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"It is wrongheaded ... when you pass laws that deny a woman the right to make decisions about her body," Harris said, adding that it's wrong not to allow exceptions in cases of rape and incest.
"That child and that woman should not have to endure an act of extreme violence and then not have the ability to have agency and autonomy to decide what happens next in her life," she added.
Harris acknowledged that abortion is often at odds with faith.
"You don't have to abandon your faith or your beliefs to agree that the government should not be making a decision for that woman," she said.
Harris also discussed issues of maternal health, noting that Black women are three times more likely to die in connection with child birth than the general population, Native women are twice as likely to die and women in rural areas are one and a half times more likely to die.
"If we are speaking truth it is because when she walks into that clinic or hospital or doctor's office, she is not taken as seriously as other women who walk into those rooms," she said.
She called for training on racial bias in medical settings, increasing the use of doulas and rating hospitals based on how helpful they are to women who are pregnant.
Harris issued a call for people who oppose with abortion and voting rights restrictions, and gun violence to come together in their efforts.
"Right now there is a full-on attack on freedom and liberty in America, on these issues, and I say take back the flag. Freedom and liberty? That's what we fight for."
