voters. along with firsthand accounts from political reporters, updated poll numbers, fundraising data, and campaign ads. watch c-span's 2024 campaign trail, friday nights at 7:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. online at c-span.org. or download as a podcast, on c-span now. our free mobile app. or wherever you get your podcast. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> saturday, former president donald trump speaks vers at a campaign rally in wildwood, new jersey. our live coverage starts at 5 p.m.asrn on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, and online at c-span.org. >> vice president kamala harris sat do with actress and singer cheryl lee ralph to discuss wh the biden administration is doing for women's health care. e vice president also urged voters to get involved and vote for allevels of office in the 2024 election. this is about 40 minutes.

♪ [applause] ms. ralph: hello, everyone. oh, my goodness. before i start i want to say something about this woman right here. i know this woman. i love this woman. and i like this woman. [applause] ms. ralph: i wanted to be clear to let you know. i thought it was important to

write these things down. wait a minute, i'm putting these on not because i need them. but because i look good in them. yes. thank you. i wrote this down, i said no matter what you think about class, culture, color, or gender we are about to talk with one of the most capable, influential, bold, and fearless thinkers ever. [applause] ms. ralph: this human right here isn't out to connect some of us. she is here to connect all of us. and this human being just

happens to be a woman. madam vice president kamala harris. what a wonderful journey we have had together because i'll never forget south carolina. but when we think about south carolina to this moment, tell me how do you see and feel about this moment, this re-election moment? vice presiden harris: thank you. we have known each other a long time. you are an extraordinary artist and you are just a phenomenal leader. you are a girl's girl. we love girls girls. ms. ralph: thank you. vice presiden harris: i'd like to just start by acknowledging

karyn who you just heard from. [applause] vice presiden harris: in these last two years i have met some phenomenal women. and you just witnessed one of those women, karyn, who born out of such personal tragedy decided they would take a stage in front of a national audience to share something so personal and so hurtful in terms of the experience and what it meant. and doing it so selflessly so that the world can understand what this really means for so many women who are not in this room and so many women who have been made to feel alone and been made to feel as though they should be quiet and not share or talk about their fears and their

experiences. so can we please again applaud karyn for her courage. i said what she's doing will impact women she'll never meet. because of her ability and your ability to understand what's at stake and to be here and to be engaged and be active. it's going to make a difference for a lot of people. i want to thank everyone for being here and starting with karyn. thank you. so this moment, so this is the moment we are in. we witnessed about two years ago the highest court in our land, the court of thurgood and r.b.g. take a constitutional right that had been recognized, had been recognized from the people of

america, from the women of america. and thereafter we have witnessed in state after state laws being proposed and passed that criminalize health care providers. a state in particular that i have in mind, texas. would provide for prison for life for a health care providers, doctor, nurse, doing their job. states that make no exception even for rape and incest. now, many of you know i started my career as a prosecutor. but you may not know why. so when i was in high school i learned that one of my best friends was being molested by her stepfather. and when i learned that i said to her, you have to come and stay with us. and i called my mother and my mother said of course she has to come stay with us.

she d so at a young age i decided i wanted to take on harms against women and children. for the majority of my career as a prosecutor i specialized in those cases. so the idea that these so-called leaders would say even no exception for rape and incest, to say to a survivor of a crime of violence to their body, a violation to their body, that you the survivor of that don't have a right to make a decision about what happens to your body next, that's immoral. these are the kinds of things that are happening. in our country. i think about it in the context of our daughter who is 24. and as of today has fewer rights than my mother-in-law. i think of it in the context of the idea that we are a nation that was founded on certain

fundamental principles, including that which is we believe in freedom. the freedom of individuals to make decisions in particular about what i call heart and home. i think we all 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. [applause] vice president harris: if she chooses, she will talk with her pryce or her pastor -- with her priest or pastor, she'll talk with her rabbi or iman, but not the government. my goodness, i'm going to tell you, these states, some of them, i was just recently in florida. sick week ban -- six week ban.

which makes very clear these very important so-called leaders are not very clear about how a woman's body works. since most women don't even know they are pregnant at six weeks. so either they don't know or they don't care. this is what's happening in our country in this year 2024. so we have to, all of us, i'm preaching to the choir with this group who is here, we have to be active. we have to stand if these fundamental points about freedom and also hopefully that we all as americans have a sense of empathy and concern about the suffering of other people. that's where we are. ms. ralph: why is it important to you? vice president harris: first of all i am a daughter of a mother who had two goals in her life.

my mother, her two goals were to raise her two daughters, and to end breast cancer. my mother was a breast cancer researcher. she was one of the very few women and women of color. my mother since the earliest days of my memory fought for the dignity of women in the health care system. and with the knowledge that we still have some work to do around how women are treated in the health care system. and we still have some work to do for people who recognize in particular the importance of women having dignity and access to reproductive health care in every way. ms. ralph: in every way. vice president harris: in fact i have -- i didn't realize i did, but i have the distinction of being the first president or vice president to ever visit a reproductive health clinic. [applause]

vice president harris: and to your point about in every way, so since these laws have been passed, reproductive health clinics around our country have been closing. and what many of us probably know is that those clinics are the same ones that provide breast cancer screenings. ms. ralph: that's right. vice president harris: contraceptive care. paps. i'm so fed up with this sometimes. i'm on the road full-time talking about this and other issues. what happened to a reproductive clinic, it was a long day. and the press was there. i said, let me just tell you, you guys have to be ready for this. ready for certain language. i said very loudly, ovaries. ms. ralph: fallopian tubes. uterus. vice president harris: fibroids, ms. ralph: thank you. vice president harris: it was the funniest thing for me at least. the women reporters started

laughing. all the men reporters looked down. ms. ralph: we've got to have these conversations out loud. being a woman is not something to be ashamed of. listen, if a man can get viagra, i need health care, too. [applause] ms. ralph: when we talk about reproductive clinics, understand that -- it's another one of these words 't w to say out loud, abortion is the very least that they do. the very least. [applause] ms. ralph: if you were to take planned parenthood away from some communities, there would be no place for the women or the men. to go for health care. people need to understand this.

[applause] vice president harris: that's right. that's right. ms. ralph: they have got to understand that they don't go to these clinics just because they have been a bad girl. or a naughty lady. you go to clinics like this because you need health care. vice president harris: that's right. [applause] vice president harris: and cheryl lee, you -- sheryl lee, you touched on something i think is very important to acknowledge as you have done. there is also something that has happened and been happening in this environment which is to judge women. to judge women. as though they have done something wrong. as though they should be embarrassed. which of course has the effect and sometimes i think the intent of disempowering women. ms. ralph: yes. vice president harris: that's why it is also so important that everyone, regardless of your

gender, that we show up and use every method we have whether it's our friends' network, or social media. to say no. these women are not alone. we stand with them and we trust women. to know their own best interest. [applause] vice president harris: that is -- that undertkpweurdz a lot of this. we have to call it for what it is. do you not trust women? to know what is in their own best interest? you some legislator in some state capital, the majority of whom are not women, are in a better position to tell her what she should do? we are going to vote. and we are going to show them. ms. ralph: yes. [applause] vice president harris: that we see what's happening. and we are not going to sit

silent and we are not going to let it happen. on the issue of voting, be clear that from the mid terms after the dobbs decision came down under the protection -- undid the protections of roe, through elections at the end of last year, kansas to california, from ohio to montana, so-called red and blue states, when this issue was on the ballot, the american people voted for freedom. [applause] vice president harris: voted for freedom. ms. ralph: when we talk about freedom, why is it that we are still having to have a conversation over and over and over again about how important it is to trust women? .. why do we have to keep talking

about the choices that women must make for themselves? and why are we having to talk to so many women to let them know who you how important they are in this re-election on this subject and how important it is to vote for your own best interest? vice president harris: yeah. yeah. so here's what i would say. i often paraphrase i think such a lovely thing from corretta scott king. she famously said the fight for civil rights, and you can insert the fight for equality and freedom, must be fought and won with each generation. and when she said that, i think she had two points in mind. one is that it is the nature of

these fights that whatever we gain will not be permanent. it's the nature of it. therefore, second point, we must be vigilant and not be overwhelmed when these moments happen. because the very nature of it is we must be vigilant to hold on to these rights. you know, i think of this when i talk about the fight for freedom, the freedom to make decisions about your own body, the freedom to have access to the ballot, the freedom to be free from the fear of gun violence, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. freedom for us as americans is very much about one of the essential and important pillars of a democracy. and you know, as vice president, i've now met with over 150 world leaders, presidents, prime

ministers, chancellors, and kings. and when i travel around the world or they visit with us here, one thing has become very clear to me, when we as americans walk in those rooms, we walk in those rooms with our chin up and our shoulders back with the self-appointed and earned authority to talk about the importance of democracy. one of my fears is that in some country where some women are fighting for their right to have an education, that some autocrat is looking at them and saying, will you look what the united states is doing to women? you be quiet. there's a lot about what we're fighting for right now as americans that is about all that we are discussing and will have an impact on people around the world. and let that be a reminder of many things, but most importantly, our power with our

voice to have impact through our vote. ms. ralph: i stood backstage and was listening to karen tell her story and i thought about my own story. and you don't know this. i have two children, a son and daughter, etienne and ivy. when my son was born, it almost didn't happen. i had lost my amniotic fluid. and most of us know in here that's the fluid that surrounds the baby in the womb. i had lost it all. and i was about ready to have what they called a dry birth, which is complicated. my god, i hadn't thought about this. which is complicated and the survival of the child is -- wow. so i was in a moment where i was

so close to birth and then at the same time -- and this doctor says to me, you have one chance right now for a viable delivery. i'm listening to this as i'm trying to deliver my child. suppose my child was not viable and in that moment you're going no, you know what it looks like. in that moment if that doctor were to deliver and excavate the child from my womb, they would have gone to prison. these are the kinds of things we've got to think about. that happened to me. but that was 30 years ago. i had more rights 30 years ago.

when we talk about health justice -- and i just want to ask you your thought. we look at what's happening with black women and black women and fertility. you know, the numbers are going so sky high, not only is the mother dying, the baby is dying at three times the national rate. how did we get here? vice president harris: so let's talk about that. this is an issue i've been working on for a long time since i was in the senate and now as vice president. we have a very sad distinction of the united states of having one of the highest rates of mortality than any other

developed country in the world. how can this be? black women, three times more likely to die in connection with child birth. native women, twice as likely, for rural women, 1 1/2 times more likely. let's layer this with also what's happening in terms of abortion bans. in the states with the 10 top rates of maternal mortality, they all have abortion ban. let's add the point about race and black women. that includes the majority of black women in america live in the south. every southern state but virginia has an abortion ban. let me add some more information. when i became vice president, i was looking into what are we doing, because this is a related issue, around resources for postpartum care. i looked at the number and only three states in our country had extended for women on medicaid postpartum care from two months

to 12 months. only three states. so not being above shaming people, i decided to call out all the other states and say you need to extend postpartum coverage to 12 minutes. as of today, 46 states have done it. but again, this is where we can't be overwhelmed or despondent and say ok, this is what it is and continue to fight. how is it, then, when we came in office in 2021 only three states were doing that, coverage for postpartum care for only two months? right? understanding what's needed in terms of medical care, whatever is needed in terms of emotional support, mental health support. so there's a lot of work to be done. and i think that we are -- if you think about movements as

being like relay races, there are the men and women who fought this fight to get roe v. wade decided and then, you know, to have a century we had it, and i think that those great leaders have now passed the baton to each of us, and the question is, what are we going to do in our time in the race while we're carrying the baton? i think everyone here decided to answer that question which is to say we're going to fight. we're going to fight. ms. ralph: when you say we're going to fight, you mean that. vice president harris: oh, i do. yeah. ms. ralph: we all know there's an enemy of roe vs. wade at the door. vice president harris: let's just get right into that, shall

we? i see shareese street who is here who runs the democratic party in the state. listen, if you want to know who is to blame for where we are right now, a finger can be correctly pointed at the former president. the former president made it very clear and then did what he intended to do, he would pick three members of the united states supreme court with the intention that they would undo the protections of roe, and they did exactly as he intended. and then we see the laws being passed. most recently, you've heard him say and talk about the fact that he is proud, proud i ask, that doctors and nurses can be jail? proud? proud that our daughters have fewer rights than ourselves and our mothers? proud that people are suffering, such as a woman i met who i

think i'm going to be with tonight at an event later who suffering a miscarriage, went to an emergency room to receive care and was denied because the health professionals there were afraid they'd be jail for helping her. she went back and then denied and not until she developed sepsis was she treated? understand again the significance of an election. they matter. elections matter. by the way, it's who sits in the white house and who is your united states senator. re-elect bob casey. and check out what his opponent says about these issues if you need any guidance on what the difference is going to be. look what happened in terms of josh shapiro being govern

governor and being able -- being governor and being able to maintain the state legislature which hangs in the balance with one vote. and what that means, elections matter. and we want to remind people of their power to make a determination of where you live in terms of your neighborhood, your state, and your country, on this and so many other issues. and our young people, let's remind our young leaders. i started last fall a college tour and i visited -- it was really for college age young people, so it was community colleges and trade schools. i have to tell you i love genz. for some of us that have genz's

in our life may be complicated. i love them. this is a population of young people who have the distinction of so many issues on the ballot, it's a lived experience for them. the climate crisis, they've only known the climate crisis. they've coined a term climate anxiety. talking to our daughter yesterday about this. they're afraid to have children or they should even aspire to buy a home for fear extreme weather could take it out. they lost substantial bases of their education and socialization in the pandemic. i would ask everywhere i would go, and it was a packed room every time. and i would ask these young people, raise your hand if at any point between kindergarten and 12th grade huh to endure an active shooter drill. it was bone chilling, almost every hand went up. think about our babies. there was a younger student who

once when i was having this conversation said to me, yeah, on this subject, you know, that's why i don't like going to fifth period. why, sweetheart, why don't you like going to fifth period? because in fifth period, there's no closet in which to hide. and then, of course, during the height of their reproductive years, the court took this right. this generation of young leaders, when they start voting in their numbers, i predict a sea change because this stuff is not theoretical. this is not ideological. it's a lived experience for them. and what i love about them most, they're not sitting around waiting for us to figure it out, right? and i love that. i love that. love that. so we just have to encourage them. ms. ralph: absolutely. so much encouragement.

vice president harris: yes. that's what we as parents do. ms. ralph: talking about parents, we have so many women here today, mothers in the the audience, all you mothers give yourself a night round of applause. vice president harris: and the sisters and grandmothers and everyone. ms. ralph: tell them what you and the administration has done for them. what have you done for me lately? vice president harris: here's the thing that i would say, every issue is a woman's issue, right? and women's issues should be everyone's issues. and that would include the topic of today, this issue of reproductive freedom. you know, my husband and i were just talking about this last night, actually. this is an issue regardless of your gender, the government is

taking treatments from people. how does that make you feel, right? it's just a foundational, fundamental point. what have we done? we've been doing a lot of work, of course, on maternal mortality. the work we've done on gun violence. mothers and fathers know this experience of saying a silent prayer when you drop your kids off at the school bus or at the school, please, dear god, let me child come home tonight. we passed the first piece of significant gun legislation in 30 years. the work we've done on prescription medications. so many of our seniors have had to make awful decisions if they have diabetes about how they can afford their insulin each month.

it's a very big deal. we took on phrma around saying medicare should be able to negotiate drug prices. we've now capped the cost of prescription medication on an annual basis for seniors at $2,000. $2,000 a year. these are some of the various issues that we've taken on, including what we have done around dealing with, for examplt health care, let's talk about an issue that holds so many americans down, medical debt. medical debt which for most people, many people, comes out of facing a medical emergency for which you were not prepared in terms of not just financially not prepared. so we have passed a rule that says now that medical debt cannot be accounted in your credit score. think about what that means. ms. ralph: thank you. vice president harris: and that

medical debt cannot be calculated in terms of issuing you credit, be that for a car loan, a credit card loan. ms. ralph: thank you. vice president harris: you know, the president and i feel very strongly, and this is part of our philosophy in terms of our administration. we have been doing things with the sincere belief that people shouldn't just be able to get by but should be able to get ahead, you know. and so a lot of what we've done -- these are all women's issues and everyone's issues, the work that we've done that is now about, we created over 15 million new jobs and we came in since the height of the pandemic. we created over 850 new manufacturing jobs, and we're manufacturing right here in america, creating these jobs right here, right?

investing in new industryies -- industries, too, and that's been exciting. i think what we've accomplished -- historians compare what we've done to the eisenhower years. what we've done to invest in infrastructure and manufacturing and in the american work force and to address health care is exceptional. listen, i'll cut to the chase, we have an election coming up in 181 days. it might as well be one given how we need to hustle. in the context of everything we've discussed and understanding the complexity and nuance, so many issues. november of 2024 is binary.

i would throw up a split screen, on one hand, on our side on the biden administration, you have competence, you have compassion, and we've actually accomplished things on behalf of the american people. on the other side, you have the former president who openly admires dictators and has said he'll be a dictator on day one, has said essentially that he'll weaponnize the department of justice against his political enemies, has said that he is proud of things like taking the constitutional right of the women of america. and i do believe the course of our country for generations will be impacted by this election. ms. ralph: yes. vice president harris: i'll also

say this, and this will be my final point. i think there's something frankly quite perverse that's happened over the last several years which is for some people to suggest that the measure of strength is based on who you beat down. and instead of what we know, that the true measure of one's strength is based on who you lift up, right? ms. ralph: yes. yes. vice president harris: right? and the strength of character in real leaders is also measured by the kind of character that has some level of concern and care about the suffering of other people and takes it upon themselves to do something about that. and as much as anything, that's the contrast in the split screen that's before us now that really does extend to the character of who we are as a nation and all

of that is at stake. let me tell y'all something, we're going to win. we are going to win. ms. ralph: yes. we are going to win! yes! yes. ladies and gentlemen, trust women, trust our vice president. madam vice president kamala harris. ♪ >> ♪ freedom ♪ ♪ i'm going to get some ♪ talking about freedom ♪

♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] >> saturday forr esident donald trump speaks in wildwood, new jers. our live coverage starts 5:00 p.m. eastern on-sn, c-span now, our free mobile video app and online at c-span.org.

>> friday night watch c-span's 2024 campaign trail, a weekly roundup of c-span's campaign coverage, providing a one stop shop providing what candidates are saying to the voters, along with firsthand reports from political reporters, updated phone numbers and campaign data and campaign ads. watch c-span's campaign trying friday night online. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more. ♪