Vice President Kamala Harris is ensuring that abortion rights remain at the forefront of the 2024 campaign.
Harris repeatedly criticized former President Donald Trump during a campaign appearance Friday night in Arizona, arguing that he was solely responsible for the state Supreme Court’s upholding of an 1864 law that would virtually ban all abortions.
“Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis, that’s not a fact he’s hiding,” Harris said at a rally in Tucson. “In fact, he brags about it.”
The vice president has long been an outspoken advocate for reproductive rights. She is the first president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic, an appearance that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Harris has also held a series of events since January focused on reproductive rights, although unlike previous rallies, the Biden-Harris re-election campaign hosted Friday’s event.
Unlike President Joe Biden, Harris does not seem to have the same qualms as he does when talking about this issue. According to the New York Times, Harris even argued for her appearance in Tucson, home of the University of Arizona, to focus on abortion rights rather than student debt before the Supreme Court of State makes its controversial 4-2 decision.
Harris has consistently pushed her party on this issue. During the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, then-Sen. Harris said states with a history of restricting abortion rights should be forced to obtain federal approval before enacting new laws. This system would have mirrored the pre-clearance requirements for passing laws under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At the same time, Biden struggled before following the progressive push to end his decades-long support to the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding for abortion.
Separate from Harris, the Biden campaign has released several ads explicitly focused on abortion. The campaign also announced it would spend seven figures on an ad blitz focused on abortion rights in Arizona. In a new ad, Biden looks directly into the camera, vowing to “fight like hell” for the millions of Arizona women who lost their reproductive freedom after the Dobbs decision.
Republicans, including Trump, were quick to condemn the state court’s decision, but are still grappling with the political reality of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The former president repeatedly boasted about his role in appointing the three justices, which gave the high court room to issue its landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson.
Trump has tried unsuccessfully to move away from abortion.
Of course, Trump had no say in the appointment of the seven justices to the Arizona Supreme Court. All seven, including the judge who recused himself from the case after his Facebook post calling abortion “the greatest genocide known to man” resurfaced, were appointed by governors of the Republican Party. On Friday, before Harris’ rally, Trump publicly advocated for the Arizona Legislature to repeal the 1864 law.
“The Arizona Supreme Court went too far in its ruling on abortion, enacting and approving an inappropriate law dating from 1864,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “So now the Governor and Arizona Legislature must show HEART, COMMON SENSE and ACT IMMEDIATELY to fix what happened.”
Even before the Arizona decision, the former president had tried to wash his hands of it.
Trump said the future of abortion rights should be determined at the state level, either through legislation, the ballot box, or a combination of the two. His statement left many questions unanswered, especially given his changing opinions.
Some political allies were also disappointed that Trump no longer favored a nationwide abortion ban. The Trump White House supported legislation that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother. On Friday, speaking alongside President Mike Johnson, Trump said he no longer needs to support a national ban on abortion since Roe was overturned.
“We overturned Roe v. Wade and we did something that no one thought was possible – we gave it back to the states and the states are working very brilliantly, in some cases conservative and some not conservative, but they’re working and it’s working the way it’s supposed to,” Trump said.
Harris referenced Trump’s comments during her speech and said Americans should not believe the former president would not support a ban.
“This is what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering and less freedom,” she said. “Just like he did in Arizona, he wants to take America back to the 1800s. But we’re not going to let that happen.”
businessinsider
