Vice President Kamala Harris described the flood of laws restricting abortion access as a “health care crisis” as she visited with abortion providers and staff members on Thursday at a clinic in St. Paul, Minn.

The stop by Ms. Harris at the Planned Parenthood clinic was believed to be the first official visit by a vice president to an abortion clinic. No presidents are known to have made such visits, either.

Speaking to reporters in the lobby of the clinic, which was open and seeing patients, Ms. Harris assailed conservative “extremists” for passing laws that restrict abortion, resulting in the denial of emergency care for pregnant women and the shuttering of clinics that provide reproductive health care beyond abortion.

“These attacks against an individual’s right to make decisions about their own body are outrageous and, in many instances, just plain old immoral,” she said. “How dare these elected leaders believe they are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women what is in their best interest. We have to be a nation that trusts women.”

The image alone of the nation’s second-ranking leader walking into an abortion clinic provided a vivid illustration of how the politics of abortion rights have transformed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. In the lobby was a map showing Planned Parenthood clinics in Minnesota and neighboring states. Minnesota had by far the most, with a few in Iowa. Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota were almost bare — all have restricted abortion access since the overturning of Roe.