Vice President Harris compares abortion fight to Bloody Sunday: 'You can't take freedom'

Vice President Harris connected the events of Bloody Sunday to the abortion fight during an interview with Drew Barrymore on Monday, saying it wasn't only about women, but rather, "about everyone."

Barrymore talked to Harris about the importance of voting and warned, "we as women, cannot let this happen," the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Barrymore said she became an avid voter after walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of Bloody Sunday, in Selma, Alabama. 

Harris spoke about commemorating Bloody Sunday and said, "all of these young people, young leaders decided to march through Selma and across that Edmund Pettus Bridge in fighting for voting rights," she said. 

She explained that they were met with violence from law enforcement but weren't deterred.

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."  (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

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"And when the world saw the images of what happened that day, hundreds and hundreds of people went back, hand in hand, arm in arm of every race, every generation to fight for freedom. And that is what is at stake," she said, before turning back to abortion. "This is not only about the women of America, it's about everyone."

"It's about everyone," she repeated. "It's about the promise of America, it's about — you can't take freedoms." 

Harris said America was certainly imperfect, but that equality should be guaranteed for all. 

"If we don't fight for it, we'll never get there," she said. 

Drew Barrymore at the TIME100 Gala held at Frederick P. Rose Hall on April 26, 2023, in New York City. (Nina Westervelt/Variety/Getty Images)

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Barrymore praised Harris as the first female vice president during the interview. 

"I believe in your protection of women, I believe in the fact that you are putting yourself out there front and center to care about them in a way we have wanted for many generations, a female in power. And when you got in, it was like we finally have got somewhere," Barrymore said. 

However, the talk show host said she felt for the first time in her life that the cards were stacked against her. 

"I never felt in my lifetime, at war with my gender, because I was the beneficiary of so many women before me. This is the first time I feel like the cards are stacked and the deck is stacked against me, because of reproductive rights and many other things," she said. 

Drew Barrymore and Vice President Harris discuss the importance of voting during an interview that aired on Monday, April 29, 2024. (Left: Raymond Hall/GC Images, Right: Andi Rice/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Harris encouraged women to "dream with ambition." She said she wanted to address "pay equity" in women's sports, referencing WNBA players' salaries in light of basketball star Caitlin Clark's salary. 

But she turned back to abortion rights and criticized the court's ruling in Dobbs. She said the Supreme Court justices "took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the women of America."

"How dare they? Think of the notion that some person sitting in some state legislature believes, mostly, that he is in a better position than you to know what's in your best interest," she added. "One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling her what to do with her body."

Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.