Vice President Kamala Harris became the first vice president or president ever to visit an abortion clinic on Thursday, stopping in at a Planned Parenthood in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Harris, an Oakland native and a longtime figure in Bay Area and California politics before becoming VP, spoke to reporters in the lobby of the clinic, calling abortion opponents right-wing "extremists."

"These attacks against an individual’s right to make decisions about their own body are outrageous and, in many instances, just plain old immoral," Harris said, per the New York Times. "How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interest. We have to be a nation that trusts women."

As the Times notes, the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade has "upended" the older political calculus around abortion — with Democrats in earlier years taking much more of a cautious approach to supporting abortion rights, and using slogans like "safe, legal and rare."

Harris's appearance at a Planned Parenthood is a clear election-year campaign stop, connecting the Democratic Party firmly with legal access to abortion in a state where Planned Parenthood has a significant presence. But as a map in the lobby of the St. Paul clinic shows, neighboring states like Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota have no abortion clinics, because their state governments have severely restricted abortion access in the wake of the 2022 decision.

Abortion rights are expected to be a key issue for Democrats this year, and especially for Joe Biden as he seeks reelection. But, as the Times notes, Biden, while being more forceful in his rhetoric around restoring a federal right to abortion, remains reluctant to use the word "abortion," and remains a devout Catholic who has his own religious objections to it.

In continued comments, Harris said of Planned Parenthood, "Please do understand that when we talk about a clinic such as this, it is absolutely about health care and reproductive health care. So everyone get ready for the language: uterus. Issues like fibroids. We can handle this."

Harris added, "What happened here in Minnesota with the re-election of the governor and the turning of the State Legislature, is what has led to ensuring that these fundamental rights are intact and are protected. Elections matter."

Previously: VP Kamala Harris Has Now Cast More Tiebreaking Senate Votes Than Any VP In U.S. History

Top image: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on the 59th commemoration of the Bloody Sunday Selma bridge crossing on March 3, 2024 in Selma, Alabama. Harris called for an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza in her remarks but reiterated that Israel has "a right to defend itself." (Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)