Harris and Beyonce rally for abortion rights in Texas | Al Jazeera News

Kamala Harris said at a rally in Houston, Texas that Donald Trump has reversed 50 years of progress on women's reproductive rights and that if elected he would ensure abortions would be banned across the United States.

The Democratic Party candidate told a boisterous crowd at the city's Shell Energy Stadium that since the former president appointed Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe vs. Wade, more than 20 states now have a ban on abortion.

“If you're watching from another state and think you're protected from Trump's abortion bans because you live in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New York, California or any other state where voters or lawmakers have protected reproductive freedom, know Please: No one is protected,” Harris said. “Because a nationwide ban by Donald Trump will ban abortion in every single state.”

Trump has repeatedly denied that he would support a national ban, but critics say his position has changed so often that his word cannot be trusted.

Harris was joined on stage by Houston singer Beyonce, her mother Tina Knowles and her former Destiny's Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please give the next President of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris, a big, loud Texas welcome,” Beyoncé said to the sellout crowd.

“I’m not here as a celebrity. I'm not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother.”

She added: “A mother who cares deeply about the world in which my children and all our children live, a world in which we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world in which we are not divided .”

Beyonce did not perform, but she did allow Harris' Democratic campaign to use her song “Freedom,” a cut from her breakthrough 2016 album “Lemonade,” as its anthem.

Biggest rally so far

Harris' campaign said Friday night was her largest rally yet; The crowd waited for hours, wearing flashing red, white and blue LED wristbands as “Trust Women” and “Freedom” flashed on large screens between performances.

The rally focused on reproductive rights and heard testimony from women who nearly died from sepsis and other pregnancy complications because they were unable to receive proper medical care, including women who never planned to terminate their pregnancies.

With the presidential election dead, Harris is betting that abortion rights are a key voter factor — including for Republican women, especially since Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right. He was unclear about how he would approach the issue if voters returned him to the White House.

There is evidence that abortion rights could encourage women to go to the polls, as was the case in the 2022 midterm elections. Voters in seven states, including some conservative ones, have either protected abortion rights or rejected attempts to restrict them in statewide votes over the past two years.

“Since Roe was overturned and reproductive rights were on the ballot, the people of America have voted for freedom,” Harris said. As president, she promised to sign legislation restoring federal abortion rights if Congress passed legislation.

Trump rally in Michigan delayed

The Republican candidate was also in Texas on Friday for an interview with Joe Rogan, the country's most popular podcaster. Trump is courting younger male voters, with whom Rogan is well received.

But the interview delayed Trump's arrival at a rally in Michigan by nearly three hours.

Thousands of his supporters walked while others huddled in the cold to wait for the former president at an outdoor rally in the battleground state.

Minutes before Trump's Michigan event was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. local time, his spokesman posted on the social media platform X that Trump was leaving Texas, more than two hours away by plane. Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay put, pointing out that it was Friday night and promising, “We're going to have a good time tonight.”

Trump eventually took the stage at the Traverse City airport, where temperatures plunged to 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius), and apologized.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “It was so close for us and I thought you wouldn’t mind because we want to win.”