A packed crowd stood shoulder-to-shoulder at a Tucson community center, listening as Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic leaders lambasted former President Donald Trump and local Republicans for backpedaling on reproductive healthcare restrictions. The outcry comes amid Arizona’s looming near-total abortion ban — among the strictest in the nation — dating back to 1864.
“Here in Arizona, they have turned the clock back more than a century on women’s rights and freedoms,” she said during her speech at El Rio Neighborhood Center during a campaign event for reproductive freedom. “The overturning of Roe was a seismic event. And this ban in Arizona is one of the biggest aftershocks yet.”
Arizona’s Supreme Court decision allows the reinstatement of a Civil War-era statute banning all abortions in the state “unless necessary to save a woman’s life” without exceptions for rape or incest. It also paves the way to punish abortion healthcare providers with up to five years of prison time.
In her speech to about 100 people, Harris’ ire went beyond the ruling. She condemned former President Donald Trump for his rhetoric and record on abortion-banning legislation.
“We all must understand who is to blame. It is the former president, Donald Trump. It is Donald Trump who, during his campaign in 2016, said women should be punished for seeking an abortion,” Harris told the crowd at the campaign event, which was not open to the public.
Trump appointed three Supreme Court judges who voted in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade during his presidency.
All of Arizona’s Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican governors. All but two of the seven sitting justices ruling on access to abortion healthcare are men.
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At the same time as Harris’ event, Trump spoke about the federal ruling during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
“We broke Roe v. Wade,” Trump said. “Nobody thought it was possible. We gave it back to the states and the states are working very brilliantly, in some cases conservative, in some cases not conservative, but they’re working. And it’s working the way it’s supposed to.”
Harris incorporated Trump’s remarks in her speech.
“Just minutes ago, standing beside speaker Johnson, Donald Trump just said the collection of state bans is, quote, ‘working the way it is supposed to,’” she said before the crowd erupted in boos.
Earlier Friday, the former president also spoke out against the Arizona abortion ban on a Truth Social post Friday, writing, “The Supreme Court in Arizona went too far on their Abortion Ruling, enacting and approving an inappropriate Law from 1864.”
Arizona’s abortion ban now dates back to 19th century codes — before women could vote and nearly 50 years before the territory became the 48th state to join the Union in 1912 on Valentine’s Day.
Trump urged Arizona lawmakers to “use HEART, COMMON SENSE, and ACT IMMEDIATELY, to remedy what has happened” and create exceptions in the law for “Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother.”
Before Harris’ speech, seven other Democratic leaders took the blue-draped stage, speaking about reproductive rights and its role in the upcoming presidential and state elections.
Abortion is a pivotal issue in 2024 elections across the nation. As a swing state, Arizona holds substantial pull and a candidate’s platform on abortion has a strong sway among voters.
Noble Predictive Insights surveyed 1,002 registered Arizona voters in February 2024, and found that 90% of respondents said abortion should be legal in some form and 81% said a candidate’s stance on abortion is moderately to very impactful on their vote.
Another poll by the Public Religion Research Institute of an estimated 20,000 voters nationwide in 2022 showed only 7% of Arizonans think abortion should be illegal in all cases.
On Friday, Harris’ audience, many donning ‘Arizona for Reproductive Freedom’ T-shirts listened and laughed when Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes mentioned GOP leaders’ changing their stance on abortion following the state Supreme Court ruling.
“They celebrated when the Dobbs decision defeated Roe and they are backpedaling like no one has ever seen them backpedal now,” Fontes told the crowd.
U.S. Senate Republican candidate Kari Lake has had shifting stances on abortion. Lake previously ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor. During a campaign rally at the University of Arizona Thursday, she reiterated her pro-life position while criticizing the 1864 ban, saying politicians should not be imposing their view on others, and that this new ruling with no exceptions for rape or incest will not stand.
U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who is currently running for Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat against Lake, criticized his opponent’s position during the campaign event.
“It couldn’t be any more clear, Lake wants to ban abortion. I want to protect abortion rights. That’s why we’re going to win the Senate race,” Gallego told the crowd.
State Sen. Eva Burch, D-Phoenix, a nurse practitioner who introduced Vice President Harris, engaged the crowd by sharing her own abortion story following a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.
“Access to a quick and cheap abortion saved my life and my fertility,” Burch said. “The Arizona Supreme Court’s decision makes me very, very afraid that my doctor will be too scared to perform an abortion as promptly as last time.”
Burch said her experience was one among many and without action the nation’s increasingly restrictive abortion healthcare landscape will continue hurting pregnant people.
“Many women in the states have been making the same decisions and grappling with the same heartbreak that I did,” she said. “Their stories matter and are the reason we cannot give up the fight for reproductive rights in this day in this country.”
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