U.S. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., speaks at a reproductive freedoms rally hosted in Flint, Mich., on Sept. 5, 2024, by state Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet's campaign for Congress. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Michigan Advance)
U.S. House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) visited Michigan on Thursday to campaign on reproductive rights with two Democrats who are seeking new jobs in the U.S. House this fall.
Clark called the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs to overturn Roe v. Wade a “fundamental shift,” adding that “if women and families in this country don’t have the right to make this personal decision about if, when and how to have children, there is no level of government intrusion that won’t be tolerated.”
Planned Parenthood of Michigan President Paula Thornton Greear said that by defunding Planned Parenthood, conservatives would be “stripping away access to birth control, STI testing and treatment and other reproductive services for millions of Americans.”
She emphasized that while Michigan voters passed a ballot proposal in 2022 to protect abortion rights, a federal ban would supersede state law.
Clark joined Sen. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City), who is seeking to succeed U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Flint), for a rally at the Flint Farmers’ Market after participating in a roundtable discussion with former Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing), who is running to replace U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly).
Both seats are considered tossups by the Cook Political Report and will be crucial for determining partisan control of Congress. Currently, Republicans hold a slim majority in the U.S. House.
McDonald Rivet is running against Republican businessman Paul Junge, who previously ran against Kildee in 2022 and Slotkin in 2020, losing both times.
Kildee hit Junge as a California millionaire who “believes his enormous personal wealth entitles him to make decisions for you … on every issue he faces in Congress, and for women in this country, make the most personal decision that you will ever make.”
“He ran against Elissa Slotkin, he lost. He moved up to this district, ran against me,” Kildee said. “I come to this Farmers’ Market all the time. The day after the election, until I decided not to run for reelection, we had no idea where he was. He’s not one of us. A representative is a person who is from here, who is of us.”
Kildee said Junge has called the protections of Roe v. Wade a “made up right,” adding, “We don’t know where he lives, but we know where he stands.”
Kildee contrasted that with McDonald Rivet, who he said “understands us” and “shares our values.”
“This is a referendum on freedom,” Kildee said. “That is a word that Democrats ought to own, because we are the ones that actually stand for it. We believe that freedom means individuals have freedom, not that the government has the freedom to decide for you your own future.”
Hertel is running against former state Sen. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte), who unsuccessfully challenged Slotkin in 2022.
“Donald Trump, [Ohio U.S. Sen.] J.D. Vance, and Tom Barrett all buy into the same dangerous idea: That they get to determine if, when, and how you have a child. They believe freedom should be a privilege for the few instead of a right for all Americans,” Clark said. “Tom Barrett has two words for survivors of rape and incest: ‘No exceptions.’ He thinks abortion won’t be an issue this year. We’re about to show him just how wrong he is.”
Clark said that if Vance can’t decide which doughnuts to order, an apparent reference to a recent campaign stop the Republican nominee for vice president made, then he shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions about reproductive rights.
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