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Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Arizona on Friday to highlight reproductive rights just days after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 near-total abortion ban is enforceable.
Harris’ office said she will visit Tucson “to continue her leadership in the fight for reproductive freedoms” as the ruling brings the vital swing state to the forefront of abortion politics.
She will deliver remarks slamming former President Donald Trump for his record and rhetoric about abortion, according to excerpts of her speech released by the campaign.
“Here’s what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering, less freedom,” she will say, according to the campaign. “But we are not going to let that happen.”
Harris will paint Trump as “the architect of this health care crisis” and point to his previous comments about how women who seek abortions should be punished, according to the excerpts.
She will speak alongside state and local officials, including Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is running for the Senate, the campaign official said.
Harris visited Phoenix last month to discuss abortion and reproductive rights, which has proven to be a particularly mobilizing issue for Democrats. During the Phoenix visit, she slammed the impending state Supreme Court decision.
“These extremists, they’re trying to take women back to the 1800s,” she said in March. “But we’re not going to let them.”
Harris has taken a lead role in the administration’s approach to reproductive rights, traveling across the country during her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour, which had stops in Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and other critical swing states. In March, she became, it is believed, the first president or vice president to visit a clinic that provides abortion services.
Harris and President Joe Biden frequently highlight protecting abortion access as a centerpiece of their re-election campaign, pointing to Trump’s bragging about being able to “kill” Roe v. Wade through his Supreme Court nominations.
Harris immediately hammered the Arizona Supreme Court decision in a statement, putting the blame squarely at Trump’s feet.
“This even more extreme and dangerous ban criminalizes almost all abortion care in the state and puts women’s lives at risk. It provides no exceptions for rape, incest, or health,” Harris said in a statement Tuesday. “It’s a reality because of Donald Trump, who brags about being ‘proudly the person responsible’ for overturning Roe v. Wade, and made it possible for states to enforce cruel bans.”
Since the Arizona Supreme Court decision, the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee have highlighted Trump’s abortion politics in a series of new advertisements. On Thursday, the Biden campaign launched a seven-figure ad buy in Arizona about reproductive rights. The DNC also announced a new Arizona billboard campaign slamming Trump’s abortion position.
“Abortion is banned in Arizona thanks to Donald Trump,” the billboard design says. “He won’t stop until it’s banned nationwide. #TrumpsAbortionBan.”
Biden narrowly won Arizona in 2020 with just over 10,000 more votes than Trump, flipping the state blue.
And Arizonans appear to be widely in favor of abortion rights. An NBC News 2022 midterm exit poll found that 62% of Arizona voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
But Trump has indicated he may be taking a softer stance on abortion bans ahead of the 2024 election, when the question of abortion access will be on the ballot in several states. He said Wednesday that the Arizona Supreme Court went too far in its ruling, and he said Monday that abortion decisions should be left to the states.
Abortion access has become a potent political issue after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization allowed abortion laws to be implemented at the state level. Even in red-leaning states like Ohio, Kansas and Kentucky, voters backed the pro-abortion-rights position when it was put to votes.
Florida, Maryland and New York will have abortion-related measures on the ballot in November, and proposed measures in eight more states, including Arizona, are seeking ballot status. The Biden campaign has said it now sees Florida as “winnable” in November, pointing to how previous elections have shown that “protecting abortion rights is mobilizing a diverse and growing segment of voters to help buoy Democrats up and down the ballot.”
Biden has repeatedly said he aims to make the abortion protections afforded by Roe the law of the land. However, he would face a slew of challenges to usher national legislation through Congress.
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