Kamala Harris talks abortion as she campaigns in Phoenix: 5 key takeaways
Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back federal abortion protections, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in Phoenix to discuss the issue of “reproductive freedom,” a touchstone of her and President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.
Here are five key takeaways from her Monday campaign stop at Warehouse215 in downtown Phoenix.
Harris approaches record for Arizona visits in an election cycle
Harris is approaching a record for Grand Canyon State visits during an election year and the year preceding it, according to an Arizona Republic tally of presidential and vice-presidential candidate visits since 1996.
With five months to spare before the November general election, Harris has visited Arizona six times since the start of 2023.
Former President Donald Trump made seven visits to Arizona ahead of the 2016 election. Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence visited Arizona another seven times ahead of the 2020 election.
In total, Biden and Harris have now made nine stops in Arizona since 2023 began. Trump has visited Arizona once during that time.
Harris blames Trump for abortion bans
At the campaign event, Harris noted that Trump's presidency set the stage for the overturning of the landmark 1973 abortion case, Roe vs. Wade. It's a familiar campaign trail talking point in a state where recent abortion restrictions are expected to boost Democratic turnout in the upcoming elections.
“Donald Trump says he is proudly responsible for what he’s done,” Harris said.
The Trump campaign has accused Democrats of misrepresenting his platform on abortion. Democrats have said Trump would sign a national abortion ban if elected. Though he has suggested his support for a national abortion law in the past, Trump called for state-level laws on the issue rather than a national one in his current campaign.
Harris pointed to the wave of state-level abortion bans enacted after Roe vs. Wade was overturned.
"Think about what this is meaning for real people every day," she said.
Abortion collides with election math
Abortion has become a lightning rod in Arizona, one of the few states up for grabs in this year's presidential election.
Liberal and progressive groups are working to put a measure on the November ballot that, if passed, would enshrine a right to abortion in the state's Constitution.
Earlier this year, the Arizona Supreme Court made national headlines when it moved to reinstate a near-total 1864 ban on abortion passed while the state was still a territory.
The law has since been repealed, but the conversation it started is ongoing. Democrats have highlighted the issue in campaigns up and down the ballot as evidence of the impact of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision repealing Roe vs. Wade. A 15-week ban remains in place in Arizona.
Abortion restrictions are widely expected to boost Democratic turnout in Arizona, where Biden defeated Trump by a razor-thin margin in 2020.
Trump again distances himself from Arizona abortion ban
Reached for comment, Trump campaign officials argued Harris’ claims about Trump’s positions were “a desperate attempt to scare voters.”
“The truth is that the Dobbs decision returned power back to the people in every state to make decisions on the issue of abortion,” wrote Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary.
When Arizona’s stringent 1864 law went into effect, Trump called on the state Legislature to "remedy" the law to make it align more closely with public opinion.
“The real policies harming women were created by the Biden-Harris agenda and have led to skyrocketing crime, a fentanyl crisis and are allowing illegal migrants to terrorize Arizonans,” Halee Dobbins, the Republican National Committee's Arizona communications director, said in a written statement.
Democrats point to extreme comments within GOP ranks
Hours before Harris took the stage, Arizona Democrats promoted the fact that Jeff Durbin, an anti-abortion organizer in Arizona, had argued that abortion amounts to murder and merits the death penalty in a recent interview with the New York Times.
"If you take the life of a human being unjustly, then what the state owes you, if it's proven and it's true, is capital punishment. You forfeit your right to live," Durbin, a pastor, said in the interview.
Biden campaign adviser Jen Cox wrote in the news release that the remark reflects “Donald Trump and his allies' vision for the women of our country.”
Trump has said that “there has to be some form of punishment” for people who seek abortions, though he clarified that the doctor performing an abortion, not the person receiving an abortion, should be held legally responsible. A media contact for Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Arizona Republic reporter Ronald Hansen contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kamala Harris visits Phoenix to talk abortion in Arizona