FLORIDA, USA — Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign will start a multi-state "Fighting for Reproductive Freedom" bus tour this week in Florida where a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights has spilled into the presidential race.
The tour is scheduled to start Tuesday in Palm Beach where U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is scheduled to be among the speakers. It will continue to Jacksonville on Wednesday with state Sen. Tracie Davis, D-Jacksonville, making the case for the Harris campaign and then to Savannah, Ga. on Thursday. The bus will make at least 50 stops in a number of states during the run-up to the November election, according to Harris's campaign.
Harris blames Trump for clearing the way for Florida's six-week ban on abortion because he has said he is proud his appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court resulted in ending a federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Trump, a Florida resident, said Thursday he favors longer than six weeks for the cut-off when a reporter asked him how he will vote in November on the state constitutional amendment. If more than 60% of voters approve the constitutional amendment, that would strike the six-week ban and prevent state lawmakers from restricting abortions until a woman is farther along in her pregnancy.
"I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks," he said in an interview with NBC News.
A Trump campaign spokeswoman later told USA Today that Trump has not said how he will vote on the amendment but thinks six weeks "is too short."
Harris has criticized the six-week ban in Florida and similar restrictions enacted in other states after the Supreme Court ruling. The bus tour will contrast her stance with Trump, said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, manager of the campaign for Harris and running mate Tim Walz.
“This election is about freedom, and the American people want and deserve the freedom to make their own health care decisions," Rodriguez said. "Our campaign is hitting the road to meet voters in their communities, underscore the stakes of this election for reproductive freedom, and present them with the Harris-Walz ticket’s vision to move our country forward, which stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s plans to drag us back."
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other top Republicans in Florida have been calling on voters to reject the constitutional amendment.
The proposed amendment says abortion would be legal until fetal viability or if a healthcare provider determines an abortion is needed to protect the woman's health. The amendment does not put a time frame on viability but it is in the range of around 24 weeks.
The Palm Beach bus stop Tuesday by the Harris campaign will feature Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., political commentator Ana Navarro, and Anya Cook, a Florida resident who spoke at the Democratic national convention about nearly dying in 2022 because the state's restriction prevented her from getting an abortion after her water broke in the sixteenth week of pregnancy.