Vice President Kamala Harris heads to Arizona on Friday, just days after the state Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions could be enforced.
Harris has been a leading figure in the Biden administration defending abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
The White House announced it would travel to Tucson later this week, shortly after the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the 160-year-old law banning abortion without exceptions for rape or incest.
The White House said the visit would be to “continue her leadership in the fight for reproductive freedom.”
It is his second trip to the battleground state of Arizona this year and his fifth since taking office.
“Last month, the vice president visited Phoenix, Arizona, to highlight how extremists in states across the country have proposed and enacted abortion bans that threaten women’s health, force them to travel out of state for care, and criminalize to doctors,” the White House reported. saying.
Vice President Harris will travel to Tucson on Friday to fight for reproductive freedom. Last month, she became the first vice president or sitting president to visit an abortion clinic.
Harris on April 10 at the White House with Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the arrival ceremony of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state can enforce its long-dormant law that criminalizes all abortions except when the mother’s life is at stake. Pictured: Thousands protest at the Arizona State Capitol after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Tuesday’s 4-2 decision by the Arizona court paved the way for enforcement of one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans.
The Civil War-era law was written nearly fifty years before Arizona became a state and more than fifty years before women had the right to vote.
It establishes sentences of two to five years in prison for anyone who helps perform an abortion, unless the procedure is necessary to save the mother’s life.
Harris has been on a ‘Fight for Reproductive Freedom’ tour across the country that included stops in Wisconsin, California, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Minnesota.
Last month, she became the first vice president or sitting president to visit an abortion clinic with a trip to a Planned Parenthood facility in Minnesota.
“This even more extreme and dangerous ban criminalizes nearly all abortion services in the state and puts women’s lives at risk,” Harris said in a statement following the Arizona decision.
Harris criticized former President Trump for his role in the nomination of three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe with the Dobbs decision in 2022, which returned the abortion issue to the states.
‘Arizona just turned back the clock to a time when women couldn’t vote, and by its own admission, there’s one person responsible: Donald Trump.
‘“The American people believe that health care decisions should be made between women and their doctors, not politicians, and we are willing to stand up to fight for our most fundamental freedoms,” he added.
“This is what leaving it up to the states looks like,” Biden campaign rapid response director Ammar Moussa wrote on X following the Arizona ruling.
The 4-2 decision could influence other states seeking to restrict abortion and could have far-reaching impacts heading into the 2024 elections. Pictured: Arizona Supreme Court justices from left to right; William G. Montgomery, John R. Lopez IV, Vice Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer, Chief Justice Robert M. Brutinel, Clint Bolick and James Been
On Monday, Trump said his position on abortion is that it should be left to the states.
He made the announcement in a four-and-a-half-minute video posted on Truth Social. His comments marked a departure from his previous suggestions that he would consider a federal ban on abortion.
Trump also said he supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
The timing of the Arizona court’s decision, a day after its announcement, could prompt the former president to once again defend himself on the issue after he delayed for months even expressing his position.
Abortion has proven to be a motivating issue that helped Democrats in midterm elections and a series of special elections since the Dobbs decision ended the federal right to abortion.
Some Republicans in tough races have struggled to articulate a position on the issue that could hurt them politically. Others have recoiled from the comments.
Donald Trump released a video Monday in which he praised the overturning of Roe v Wade and said he believes the abortion issue should be left up to the states.
Arizona passed a 15-week abortion ban in 2022, but the state Supreme Court upheld Arizona’s 1864 abortion law that bans nearly all abortions without exceptions for rape or incest. It could take several weeks before the new decision takes effect
Several Arizona Republicans spoke out Tuesday against the state Supreme Court’s decision.
Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake said she has traveled the country and “it’s very clear that pre-statehood law is out of step with Arizonans.”
‘I oppose today’s ruling and call on Katie Hobbs and the state Legislature to propose an immediate, common-sense solution that Arizonans can support. Ultimately, Arizona voters will make the decision on the ballot in November,” Lake said in a statement.
In 2022, before Roe fell, Lake, as a gubernatorial candidate, said Arizona has “a big law on the books” in case Roe falls. On Monday, Lake endorsed Trump’s stance on abortion as a state issue.
Arizona Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who supports the state’s 15-week abortion ban, called Tuesday’s ruling a “disaster for women and providers.”
‘Territorial law is archaic. “We must do better for women and I call on our state policymakers to address this immediately in a bipartisan manner,” she said.
But other Republicans in the state support the measure. Ahead of the decision, Phoenix-based political strategist Tony Cani posted a video of lawmakers praying on the chamber floor.
“It’s footage of Republican Senator Anthony Kern and his prayer team of anti-abortion extremists praying in tongues (that’s not an audio issue) to make an 1864 law banning almost all abortions the law again,” he wrote in a post. in X.
An effort to get abortion access directly on the ballot in Arizona, in the form of a constitutional amendment, is already underway.
Last week, a coalition of advocates announced that they had already gathered more than 500,000 signatures for the petition. The threshold to put a measure on the ballot is 383,923 and there are still three months until the July 3 deadline.
Arizona for Abortion Access said the amendment appears to be on track to go before voters this fall.