Last Friday, an estimated 30,000 people gathered in Houston's Shell Energy Stadium to support Kamala Harris as her historic presidential campaign entered its final days. Neither Harris nor anyone else expects her to carry Texas, but the vice president and a star-studded roster of supporters ventured to the Lone Star State for another reason, and with a national audience in mind. They delivered a warning that Texas' near-total abortion ban could become the norm nationwide if Donald Trump is elected. In other words, it was an attempt to focus attention on an issue the Harris campaign thinks can win her the White House: reproductive rights.

“What we’re experiencing here is a health care crisis, and Donald Trump is the architect of it,” Harris told her largest rally crowd to date. “Let us be clear: If Donald Trump wins again, he will ban abortion nationwide.”

Pop music superstar Beyoncé put in an appearance to endorse Harris, telling the crowd she wasn’t there as a celebrity but as a mother, “who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in.”

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Addressing “all the men and women in this room, and watching around the country," Beyoncé said, "We need you."

She and Harris were joined at the rally by several women who have nearly died from sepsis and other pregnancy complications in Texas because the state's restrictive abortion laws meant they were unable to obtain appropriate medical care. Under a set of laws enacted in 2022, abortion is prohibited in Texas except when the life or health of the pregnant patient is at risk. But as in several other states with similar laws, such exceptions are not clear-cut. Women in Texas have reportedly been denied care for conditions like ectopic pregnancies — without........

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