Oprah and Diane von Furstenberg slam assault on women's reproductive rights

Oprah Winfrey and Diane von Furstenberg have doubled down on their support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, saying that the alternative option would be unacceptable for women.

Speaking to CNBC, Winfrey said that women's reproductive rights had become one of the most pressing and divisive issues in the U.S. today, and that Harris was the only candidate who would preserve them.

"She [Harris] should be president of the United States for this moment in time, where decency, honor and respect – particularly for other women, and other women's bodies and their rights – is on the line," Winfrey told CNBC's Tania Bryer in an interview last month.

"The most basic primal choice is being able to decide when or how to have children, and whether or not you choose to bring children into the world and take on that responsibility. I think that's major for right now," the media mogul added.

Winfrey, who spoke in support of Harris at the Democratic National Convention last month, was joined in a shared interview with von Furstenberg, who echoed her comments. When asked what she thought of the new challenges to women's rights, she said it was "unacceptable."

"I'm a baby boomer: We thought we had invented freedom and been some part of the liberation," von Furstenberg said. "It's shocking, it's absolutely shocking and unacceptable," she added.

Abortion rights have been a key issue on the campaign trail in the run-up to the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election.

Harris, like incumbent President Joe Biden, has pledged to restore abortion rights at a federal level after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade decision in June 2022. Republican nominee Donald Trump has meanwhile said he would leave the matter up to individual states, many of which have already implemented abortion bans.

Harris is currently polling 2.7 points ahead of Trump, according to a Sept.10 reading from FiveThirtyEight, a lead which has narrowed slightly following a rush of enthusiasm after her addition to the presidential ballot.

Without directly referencing the opposition, von Furstenberg said that the arrival of Harris had brought optimism to the race and offered a glimmer of light for women's rights.

"Everyone was so depressed and all of a sudden this happened," she said.

"It's about the light," she said separately. "It's the light at the end that always pushes the darkness away."

Winfrey, who has built a career championing self-empowerment, was even more buoyant on Harris' prospects, saying she was an example of "what the American Dream can be."

"When Kamala Harris becomes president of the United States, it means that anything is possible in the world," she said.