Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Tucson about abortion and reproductive rights. April 12, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned for reproductive rights in Tucson Friday afternoon. Her visit comes days after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 near-total abortion ban is enforceable.
“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,” Harris said. “This decision by the Arizona state supreme court now means women here live under one of the most extreme abortion bans in our nation.”
The Civil War-era law bans all abortions, except in cases to save a pregnant person’s life. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.
“The overturning of Roe was without any question a seismic event and this ban here in Arizona is one of the biggest aftershocks yet,” Harris said.
VIEW LARGER The Women for Biden coalition attends Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to Tucson, AZ in the El Rio Neighborhood Center on Friday, April 12, 2024. The Biden-Harris campaign blamed former president Donald Trump for Tuesday’s court ruling during the vice president’s speech.
“Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis,” Harris said. “And that’s not a fact he hides. In fact, he brags about it.”
The speech hinted at a video released earlier this week by the Trump campaign, where the former president said he is “proudly the person responsible for ending something that all legal scholars both sides wanted and in fact demanded be ended–Roe v. Wade.”
VIEW LARGER An Arizona resident listens to Vice President Kamala Harris talk about Arizona's re-enacted 1864 near-total abortion ban in Tucson, AZ at the El Rio Neighborhood Center on Friday, April 12, 2024. Harris warned voters against what she thinks a second Trump term would look like.
“If Donald Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban. How do we know? Look at his record.”
However, on Wednesday, Trump told reporters that Arizona went too far with its ban.
“That'll be straightened out,” Trump said. “As you know it's all about state's rights. It'll be straightened out. I'm sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back within reason."
VIEW LARGER A Biden-Harris supporter smiles as she attends Vice President Kamala Harris's speech discussing reproductive rights in Tucson, AZ at the El Rio Neighborhood Center on Friday, April 12, 2024. A few hours before Harris took the stage in Tucson, Trump posted on Truth Social a message urging Arizona lawmakers to swiftly “remedy” the state Supreme Court ruling that he declared anew “went too far.”
Harris does not believe his new stance, calling it a form of “gaslighting.”
Local and state officials, including Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Congressman Ruben Gallego, joined Harris moments before she took to the stage.
Democratic state Senator Eva Burch recalled sharing her own abortion story that happened a few weeks ago on the floor of the Arizona Senate. She is now urging others to join in her vulnerability.
“I know it's hard for people to share the most private moments of their lives,” Burch said. “But it's moments like those that remind people how much is at stake.”
VIEW LARGER A Tucson resident takes a video of Vice President Kamala Harris speaking about abortion access in Arizona at the El Rio Neighborhood Center on Friday, April 12, 2024. Last month, Harris stopped in Phoenix for her Reproductive Freedoms Tour. She is leading the campaign’s approach to abortion, traveling across the country to key battleground states, including Arizona. During her visit in March, Harris slammed the 1864 law before the ruling was made.
“1864, before women had the right to vote before women could own property, before Arizona was even admitted as a state,” Harris said in Phoenix. “Look, these extremists, they’re trying to take women back to the 1800s. But we’re not going to let them.”
Abortion is expected to be a deciding factor for many voters. According to a survey from AP VoteCast, 61% of Arizonans who voted in the 2022 midterm elections said abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Only 6% believed in a total ban.
Since Tuesday’s ruling, the Biden-Harris campaign has launched a new seven-figure ad called “Power Back” meant to target Arizona voters and abortion access.
In Arizona, abortion rights advocates are gathering signatures to codify access in the state’s constitution–a move that many states are attempting after Dobbs v. Jackson placed responsibility back onto the states to determine access.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Vice President Kamala Harris walks onto a stage at the El Rio Neighborhood Center in Tucson, AZ to discuss the fight for reproductive rights this election season on Friday, April 12, 2024.
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