Vice President Kamala Harris is preparing to meet Democrat lawmakers Friday in five states where abortion is expected to be limited soon, The Washington Post reported.
Her scheduled visit comes roughly three weeks after the Supreme Court overturned the nearly 50-year Roe precedent in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, sending the abortion issue back to states.
Harris is slated to visit Indiana, Florida, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Montana, all of which have indicated support for further restrictions to the procedure.
Among the notable names in attendance will be Indiana House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta, South Dakota House Minority Whip Erin Healy, and incoming Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell.
The meetings, livestreamed publicly from the vice president's ceremonial office, are part of the Biden administration's broader role assigned to Harris of taking leadership on abortion-related issues in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision.
So far, the vice president has reportedly held meetings with faith leaders, healthcare providers, constitutional lawyers, and privacy experts to prepare new ways of ensuring abortion access nationwide, including access to medically-induced abortion.
Professor Jessie Hill of Case Western Reserve University told CBS News that the Justice Department could use the Food and Drug Administration's superior jurisdiction over states to protect access to abortion pills like mifepristone.
"The idea here would be the federal government has said mifepristone is safe and effective and given it a license to be sold in every state in the U.S.," Hill suggested. "No state can turn around and forbid it."
However, "one of the challenges is you have to show a clear conflict, and it's not obvious there is one," she added. "It's very unsettled, but there could be some hurdles with a lawsuit like that."
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