Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
- Kamala Harris has become the face of the Biden's campaign attacks on Trump's abortion rights record.
- Harris tore into Trump during a Friday rally in the battleground state of Arizona.
- The former president has tried to pivot away from the topic.
Vice President Kamala Harris is making sure abortion rights stay at the forefront of the 2024 campaign.
Harris repeatedly tore into former President Donald Trump during a Friday evening campaign appearance in Arizona, arguing that he is solely responsible for the state Supreme Court upholding an 1864 law that would outlaw virtually all abortions.
"Donald Trump is the architect of this healthcare crisis, that is not a fact that he hides," Harris said at a rally in Tucson. "In fact, he brags about it."
The vice president has long been outspoken in her advocacy for reproductive rights. She is the first president or vice president to visit an abortion clinic, an appearance that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. Harris has also been holding a series of events since January focused on reproductive rights, though, unlike those past rallies, the Biden-Harris reelection campaign hosted Friday's event.
Unlike President Joe Biden, Harris doesn't seem to have the same compunction he does in talking about the issue. According to The New York Times, Harris even advocated for her appearance in Tucson, home to the University of Arizona, to focus on abortion rights instead of student debt before the state Supreme Court released its controversial 4-2 ruling.
Harris has consistently pushed her party on the issue. During the 2020 Democratic presidential run, then-Sen. Harris said states with a history of restricting abortion rights should be forced to get federal approval before enacting new laws. This system would have mirrored the preclearance requirements for voting laws under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At the same time, Biden struggled before following the progressive push to end his decadeslong support for the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal funding for abortion.
Separately from Harris, the Biden campaign has released multiple ads focused explicitly on abortion. The campaign also announced that it will spend seven figures in an ad blitz focused on abortion rights in Arizona. In a new ad, Biden looks directly at the camera, vowing to "fight like hell" for millions of Arizona women who lost their reproductive freedom after the Dobbs decision.
Republicans, including Trump, were quick to condemn the state court's decision but are still grappling with the political reality of the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The former president has repeatedly bragged about his role in appointing the three justices that provided the necessary margin for the high court to issue its landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson.
Trump has unsuccessfully tried to pivot away from abortion.
Trump, of course, had no say in appointing any of the seven Arizona Supreme Court justices. All seven, including the one justice who recused himself from the case after his Facebook Post calling abortion "the greatest genocide known to man" resurfaced, were appointed by GOP governors. On Friday, before Harris' rally, Trump publicly pleaded for the Arizona legislature to repeal the 1864 law.
"The Supreme Court in Arizona went too far on their Abortion Ruling, enacting and approving an inappropriate Law from 1864," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "So now the Governor and the Arizona Legislature must use HEART, COMMON SENSE, and ACT IMMEDIATELY, to remedy what has happened."
Even before the Arizona ruling, the former president tried to wash his hands of the topic.
Trump said that the future of abortion rights should be determined at the state level either by legislation, at the ballot box, or a combination of both. His declaration left many questions unanswered, particularly given his shifting views.
Some political allies were also disappointed Trump no longer favored a nationwide abortion ban. Trump's White House supported legislation that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions in the case of rape, incest, or the life of the mother. On Friday, speaking alongside Speaker Mike Johnson, Trump said that he no longer needed to support a nationwide abortion ban since Roe was reversed.
"We broke Roe v. Wade, and we did something that nobody thought was possible — we gave it back to the states and the states are working very brilliantly, in some cases conservative and in some cases not conservative, but they are working and it's working the way it's supposed to," Trump said.
Harris referenced Trump's comments during her speech and said Americans shouldn't be gaslit into thinking that the former president wouldn't support a ban.
"Here is what a second Trump term looks like — more bans, more suffering, and less freedom," she said. "Just like he did in Arizona, he basically wants to take America back to the 1800s. But we are not going to let that happen."