How Kamala Harris learned to love saying the word 'ovaries' and 'uterus' while laughing and promoting abortion rights on the campaign trail

As Vice President Kamala Harris narrows her political message on abortion rights, she as also started talking more about female organs, relishing in any uncomfortable moments her comments can elicit. 

On Wednesday in Pennsylvania, Harris recalled at a roundtable with actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph a trip she took to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic when she first blurted out the word ‘ovaries.’

’I said very loudly, ‘Ovaries!’ She recalled, bursting out with laughter.

‘Fallopian tubes!’ she continued laughing, ‘Fibroids!’

Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and Sheryl Lee Ralph take part in a discussion during a campaign event

‘It was the funniest thing for me at least,’ she added. ‘All the women reporters started laughing, all the men reporters looked down.’

For two years, Harris has led the charge to motivate women on the issue of abortion rights arguing that she and President Joe Biden will restore abortion rights if re-elected to public office.

Harris leans heavily carefully honed political language to talk about ‘reproductive freedoms,’ during interviews and roundtable events, but she clearly enjoys the response from the audiences when she blurts out the real struggles that women have with their organs that men just don’t understand.

US Vice President Kamala Harris exits Air Force Two as arrives at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport

423.984375 SEI*196019341 Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood,

‘Everyone get ready for the language,’ she began after visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic in March.

‘Uterus!’ said, laughing at her use of the word. ‘That part of the body needs a lot of medical care from time to time.’

She continued helping reporters through the language.

‘Issues like fibroids - we can handle this - breast cancer screenings, contraceptive care - that is the kind of work that happens here, in addition, of course, to abortion care,’ she said.

It’s not the kind of conversations, Harris was having even just a year ago, but as the campaign heats up, the vice president and her aides have made a point of having these moments.

Harris brought up female organs during a March interview with former Bravo TV stars Jennifer Welch and Angie ‘Pumps’ Sullivan for their ‘I’ve Had It’ podcast.

’I am sure I’m the first vice president to in front of the press to use the word ‘uterus,’ and then I didn’t stop there either, I said the f-word, I said fibroids,' she said laughing together with the pair of women.

Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan, hosts of the Oklahoma City-based podcast 'I've Had It,' talk with Vice President Kamala Harris

US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about reproductive freedoms, at Salus University in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

Former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said that Harris' comments make American women feel 'smart' by comparison

‘I’m pretty sure, I mean we could do a fact check, but I’m pretty sure no other Vice President has done that in public,’ she added. 

Former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway said that Harris' comments make American women feel 'smart' by comparison. 

'The Republican Party speaks to me from the waist up where my eyes, my ears, my heart, and my mouth are,' Conway said in an interview with Fox News. 

'She wants to talk to everybody from the waist down only. And she just proved that.' 

Now that Kamala Harris is actively campaigning for re-election, she is more direct about specific gender issues than when she first came to Washington, D.C. 

Kamala Harris at the Emily's List Gala 2024

In 2016, as a newly elected senator for California, she revealed at the Women's March in Washington, D.C., her frustration about how people asked her about 'women's issues.'

‘I would look at them and I would say, I’m so glad you want to talk about the economy,’ she said. 

‘I’d say great, let’s talk about the economy because that’s a woman’s issue. I’d say you want to talk about women’s issues let’s talk about national security … let’s talk about health care, let’s talk about education, let’s talk about criminal justice reform, let’s talk about climate change.’

Harris' frustration was that for many politicians, 'women's issues' were too narrow as she expressed her weariness of women being categorized in politics.

‘We are tired as women of being relegated to simply being thought of a particular constituency and demographic,’ she said. 

Although she surrounded by women wearing pink ‘pussy hats,’ Harris did not bring up women or their female organs. The right to an abortion was just one of many issues that she brought up in her speech. 

Even after Harris was inaugurated vice president, she was dismissive about questions about her gender, especially when asked if her identity played a part in why Biden picked her to be his running mate in the first place.

‘I don’t think I understand you — I honestly don’t understand your question,’ Harris told the New York Times in 2023 when asked about whether it mattered whether people believed or not that her identity was the reason why she was chosen as vice president.

‘He chose a black woman. That woman is me,’ Harris, making the moment uncomfortable for the New York Times journalist. ‘So I don’t know that anything lingers about what he should choose. He has chosen. He asked me to join him on the ticket.’

Vice President Kamala Harris on the Drew Barrymore Show

Vice President Kamala Harris on the Drew Barrymore Show

Today, Harris seems fine if her audiences are a little uncomfortable about issues of gender and conversations about female genitalia. She's also growing more comfortable talking about being the first woman vice president. 

'You were asking me earlier about what it means to be like, the first woman [vice president],' Harris told talk show host Drew Barrymore during an episode. 'And you know, it's funny because people still gotta get used to this, right?' 

She cited criticism of her laugh as an example of ongoing misogyny in politics. 

'Don't be confined to other people's perception about what this looks like and how you should act in order to be, right? It's really important,' she said.