PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban will soon be gone from the state’s law books, but not from the campaign trail. Even after the state Senate voted…
Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban will soon be gone from the state’s law books, but not from the campaign trail.
Even after the state Senate voted Wednesday to repeal a law banning nearly all abortions, Democrats running in the battleground state say they will make the Civil War-era law a centerpiece of their focus on reproductive rights.
President Joe Biden’s campaign team believes anger over the fall of Roe v. Wade gives them a political advantage in battleground states like Arizona. The issue has divided Republican leaders who’ve tried to respond to many in the GOP base who oppose abortion while avoiding statements that hurt them in November.
“Republicans know that they are on the wrong side of this issue,” Arizona Democratic Party Chair Yolanda Bejarano said in an interview. “They are seeing the writing on the wall and we are going to make sure that we vote out every extremist Republican in Arizona.”
Arizona Democrats, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday organized by the Biden campaign, said they would push to defeat former President Donald Trump in the state but also win legislative majorities and pass a ballot measure that would add a reproductive-rights guarantee to the state constitution.
“Make no mistake, the reason we are here today is Donald Trump and the many Arizona Republican lawmakers that follow his blind lead,” state Sen. Anna Hernandez said at the news conference.
There’s a strong chance that abortion will still be temporarily banned before the November election because the ban will remain in effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends, likely this summer. That continuing uncertainty will almost certainly keep the law in the news.
