Harris Slams G.O.P. Abortion Bans as a Painful ‘Health Care Crisis’

Vice President Kamala Harris delivered an impassioned speech about abortion rights on Friday in Georgia, accusing Republicans who support abortion bans of causing unnecessary suffering as she described the far-reaching, painful and even deadly consequences of such policies.

"These hypocrites want to start talking about, 'This is in the best interests of women and children,'" Ms. Harris said in Atlanta as she denounced both abortion bans and the struggles some women face in order to receive proper care during and after their pregnancies. "Well, where you been? Where you been when it comes to taking care of the women and children of America? Where you been? How dare they?"

Ms. Harris's speech in Georgia, a top battleground state where she has narrowly trailed in polls , signaled a more combative and nimble approach in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign. On Monday, ProPublica reported that the deaths of two women in the state were a result of delayed treatment after receiving medication abortions, episodes that occurred in the months after Georgia passed a 2022 law banning abortion at six weeks. Two days later, Ms. Harris's campaign announced that she would travel to the state to highlight their stories.

"This is a health care crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of this crisis," Ms. Harris said to the crowd of roughly 600 people at a performing arts center in Cobb County, an area that has flipped from a Republican stronghold to safely Democratic territory. She described tragic outcomes linked to abortion restrictions as both preventable and predictable, and expressed outrage and indignation at the way that she said women seeking abortion care were treated.

Women are "being made to feel as though they did something wrong," she said, adding: "The judgment factor here is outrageous. Being made as though — to feel as though they are criminals, as though they are alone."

"We see you," she said. "You are not alone."

As Ms. Harris and Democrats have pushed relentlessly to place abortion rights at the center of the election, they have sought to blame Mr. Trump for appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision that paved the way for restrictive state abortion laws like the one in Georgia. During her remarks, Ms. Harris seemed to mock Mr. Trump's claim that he supported exceptions for the woman's health, and she criticized the idea of providing medical care only before a woman might die, calling it inhumane policy.

In particular, Democrats have tried to elevate the stories of women with life-threatening or otherwise painful experiences stemming from abortion bans, running a series of ads in which the women speak directly to voters.

Now the party has jumped on ProPublica's reporting about the two women in Georgia. One of them, Amber Thurman, 28, died of sepsis after waiting for more than 20 hours for medical care to treat an incomplete medication abortion. The other, Candi Miller, died after declining to seek treatment for complications from a medication abortion.

Republicans have pushed back on arguments that Georgia's abortion law was the cause of the women's deaths.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement that he supported "the rights of states to make decisions on abortion" and would not sign a national ban on the procedure. She said that Ms. Harris and national Democrats were "radically out of touch" with voters on the issue.

Ms. Harris has campaigned often in Georgia, one of the most competitive states in the country. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released on Wednesday showed Mr. Trump leading by three percentage points in the state, within the margin of error. The former president is scheduled to visit the state next week, as is his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.

On Friday, Georgia's State Election Board voted to force counties to hand-count all ballots cast on Election Day , a move that could delay the reporting of results and potentially throw the days after the election into confusion.

The relatively small crowd at Ms. Harris's speech in Atlanta was a departure from the thousands-strong rallies she has held at large arenas. The limited size was meant to underline the serious nature of the speech, a campaign aide said.

Still, the attendees did not lack energy. Before Ms. Harris took the stage, supporters frequently broke into chants of "we will not be silent" and "we're not going back."