Vice President Kamala Harris visited Des Moines on Thursday to meet with neighborhood leaders and abortion rights advocates to go over reproductive well being care amid current action at each the state and federal level that could restrict access to medication utilized for abortion.

Harris’s stop by came a day just after a federal judge in Texas heard arguments in a case that could take the drug mifepristone, which is utilized for healthcare abortions, off the marketplace. The Meals and Drug Administration authorized the drug two decades ago.

Harris, who hosted a closed meeting at Grand View University, mentioned the case threatens the country’s public well being technique as a complete and that the Biden administration is prepared to take action if the case succeeds.

“We take this pretty seriously,” she mentioned. “We are ready to do what ever we may well and can if the court guidelines in a way that is contrary to what we think is in the finest interests of the public well being of America.”

The plaintiffs on the case, a group of anti-abortion healthcare groups and medical doctors, sued the FDA claiming it improperly authorized the drug. It could have wide-ranging effects on abortion access as nicely as the FDA-approval method going forward if it succeeds.

Iowa Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, a Democrat from Coralville, speaks at a meeting on reproductive well being care arranged by Vice President Kamala Harris at Grand View University.

Harris named the case a political move by these pushing an anti-abortion agenda.

“The basic concern at play with that court case is our public well being technique as a complete,” she mentioned. “If politicians can start out working with the court to undo doctor’s choices, consider exactly where that could lead.”

Abortion in Iowa is legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.

On the other hand, a case looking for to reinstate a 2018 so-named “fetal heartbeat” law, that would ban abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy, is anticipated go just before the state Supreme Court subsequent month.

Iowa Republicans have indicated they program to wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling to come out just before pursing extra abortion restrictions via legislation.

Meanwhile, pharmacy chain Walgreens announced this month it would quit distributing mifepristone in 21 states – such as Iowa – following legal threats from the states’ attorneys basic.

In her comments in Des Moines, Harris criticized the attorneys basic for attempting to restrict access to the abortion pill. This incorporates Iowa Lawyer Basic Brenna Bird, who took workplace in January.

“At the core of these troubles is a foundational concern for our nation, and it is the principle that we are founded on which says that we every single are entitled to freedom and liberty in its most fundamental manifestation,” Harris mentioned.