Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on abortion rights while campaigning for President Joe Biden at an event in Tuscon, Arizona, on April 12. Her comments came days after the state Supreme Court’s move to uphold the state’s restrictive abortion policy.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s April 8 decision on the 160-year-old law bans abortions except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk.
Ms. Harris spoke at the “reproductive freedom” rally about the court ruling, calling it “one of the biggest aftershocks yet” since the 2022 overturning of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade.
“Here in Arizona, they have turned back the clock to the 1800s to take away a woman’s most fundamental right, the right to make decisions about her own body ... What has happened here in Arizona is a new inflection point,“ Ms. Harris said. ”It has demonstrated, once and for all, that overturning Roe was just the opening act.
“We all must understand who is to blame. Former president, Donald Trump.”
Starting in January, Ms. Harris has been traveling around the nation on a reproductive rights tour, claiming that the outcome of the election will determine the fate of abortion rights.
The issue of abortion has been at the forefront of the Biden campaign, with both President Joe Biden and Ms. Harris campaigning on former President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court Justice picks’ contribution to the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Ruling Fallout
Strategists in both parties predicted that the Arizona ruling, which criminalizes almost all abortions, would energize young voters and voters of color while also shifting moderates with Republican leanings toward the Democratic Party.Ms. Harris has been tasked by President Biden to lead the administration’s response to the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the abortion rights landmark Roe v. Wade decision and to reach core liberal voters undecided on the president’s candidacy for a second four-year term.
In the 2020 election, President Biden is reported to have defeated Republican opponent President Donald Trump by a margin of less than 11,000 votes out of a total of 3.3 million ballots cast in Arizona. This represented the narrowest margin of victory for the Democrats in any state.
At the Tucson rally, Ms. Harris took aim at the previous administration as she spoke to reproductive health providers and patients.
“Here’s what a second Trump term looks like—more bans, more suffering, and less freedom,” Ms. Harris said. “Just like he did in Arizona, he basically wants to take America back to the 1800s. But we are not going to let that happen.”
The vice president’s Arizona visit was heralded by a seven-figure media/TV ad buy that focused on abortion access, with billboards highlighting the 1864 law lining Arizona highways by April 10.
Marson Media CEO Barrett Marion, who also serves as a Phoenix-based GOP campaign consultant, told The Epoch Times, “This certainly will impact a lot of the races and, you know, two days ago, I would have put Arizona as ‘Lean Trump,’ and now I think I would put this as ‘Lean Biden.’
From Other Candidates
In the tight Arizona Senate race, candidate Kari Lake reacted to criticism that her abortion position was inconsistent by including a “baby bonus” bill with her campaign promises.The former Arizona newscaster is running against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) to succeed Sen. Krysten Sinema (I-Ariz.) in November.
If elected, she promised to sponsor a bill that would give couples tax cuts when they marry and additional cuts for each child, which, in addition to child tax credits, would lower the overall rate of taxation.
Ms. Harris met Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during her March 14 stop at the clinic and offered a brief speech, saying, in part: “Right now in our country, we are facing a very serious health crisis, and the crisis is affecting many, many people in our country, most of whom are frankly, silently suffering after the United States Supreme Court took a constitutional right that had been recognized, from the people of America, from the women of America.”
