Vice President Harris is going to Arizona on Friday to keep leading the fight for reproductive rights, as announced by the White House right after the state’s Supreme Court upheld a nearly complete ban on abortion.
The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an 1864 law that made performing an abortion a felony, with a very limited exception to save a pregnant person’s life. It rejected arguments to support a 15-week abortion ban approved in 2022.
“Arizona just turned back time to before women had the right to vote – and, by his own admission, there’s one person responsible: Donald Trump,” Harris said in a statement, taking a swipe at the former president.
“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,” she said, criticizing Arizona’s ban as “extreme and dangerous.”
The ruling met with quick criticism from Democrats.
“This is what leaving it to the states looks like,” said Ammar Moussa, the Biden campaign’s rapid response director, in a post on X. Former President Trump had said just a day earlier that the fate of abortion should be determined by individual states.
The vice president’s upcoming trip marks her second visit to the Grand Canyon State this year, after she visited Phoenix last month to advocate for reproductive rights as the court considered the matter.
“The alarm is sounding for every woman in America: if he has the opportunity, Donald Trump would sign off on a national abortion ban. He has called for punishing women and doctors. If he wins, he and his allies have plans to ban abortion and restrict access to birth control, with or without Congress,” Harris said on Tuesday.
Biden said in a statement from the White House on Tuesday that the Arizona ruling is “a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.”
Updated at 3:06 p.m.
