In her first stop on the 2024 campaign trail, former first lady Michelle Obama had an urgent message for men, arguing that the election could be life-or-death for the women they love.
“I’m asking you to take our lives seriously,” he said at a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The former first lady praised Harris’ credentials and called for voter turnout and participation in her speech. But she devoted significant emotional time to arguing that the future of women’s health would have dire consequences if former President Donald Trump is re-elected.
“To the men who love us, let me try to describe what it would feel like for America, the wealthiest nation on earth, to stop caring about its women and how that would affect every woman in your life. “said Obama.
Obama argued that a woman affected by the policies “may be in legal jeopardy if she needs a pill from out of state or out of state, or if she has to cross state lines because a local clinic is closed.”
“If your daughter is bleeding during an unexpected pregnancy, she may be too scared to call the doctor. It could be your niece who drowns the baby in the bath after the hospital returns her,” she continued.
“And it won’t just affect women; it will affect you and your sons,” she said, adding that both men and women would suffer the “devastating consequences of teenage pregnancy.”
Beyond abortion, Obama suggested that women’s increasingly limited access to health care could have serious consequences for prenatal care, cancer screenings and access to medical professionals.
“Your wife or mother may be at high risk of dying from undiagnosed cervical cancer because they don’t have access to regular gynecological care,” she said.
“And then there’s the tragic but very real possibility that, in the worst case scenario, you could be the one holding the flower at the funeral,” she said. “You may be left to raise your children alone.”
Her speech comes as polls show a wide gender gap in Americans’ support for Harris and Trump. Moment NBC News survey Since October, it has been known that women support Harris by a margin of 14 points, and men support Trump by a margin of 16 points. Polls in many key outlets also showed Harris and Trump in an extremely tight race.
Obama also appealed to voters considering abstaining or voting for Trump or a third-party candidate in protest, arguing that “we as women will be collateral damage to your anger.”
“Are you men willing to look the women and children you love in the eye and say you support this attack on our security?” – he asked.
NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Trump’s posture has reproductive rights developed over the years. He once supported abortion rights, but after appointing three justices to the now-plurality Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade takes credit for his role in getting his case dismissed. Trump says he supports the rights of states to decide the legality of abortion procedures within their borders and said he would not sign the federal ban.
Obama too claimed that some people “hold Kamala to a higher standard than her opponent”.
“We expect him to be intelligent and articulate, to have clear policies, never to get too angry, to prove over and over that he belongs,” he said. “But we don’t expect anything from Trump. There is no understanding of politics, no ability to put together a coherent argument, no honesty, no decency, no morals.”
And he suggested Harris could suffer in the election if Americans “aren’t ready for this moment.”
“It is clear to me that the question is not about whether Kamala is ready at the moment, because she has shown that she is ready in every measure. “The real question is: are we ready for this moment as a country?”
According to a Harris campaign official, more than 7,000 people attended the rally. Most of the people in the room stood up for Obama’s entire 40-minute speech, often cheering and punctuating his comments.