- By Holly Honderich
- In Washington
image source, Good pictures
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris blasted Donald Trump on abortion restrictions during a campaign rally in Tucson, Arizona on Friday.
The state was thrust into the forefront of America's abortion war this week after the state's Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions.
“Donald Trump did this,” Ms Harris said.
His comments align with recent attacks by the Biden campaign on Mr Trump's nationwide abortion bans.
Mr Trump campaigned on appointing justices to replace Roe v Wade in 2016. He put three conservatives on the court, all of whom voted in June 2022 to overturn Roe and repeal the nationwide right to abortion.
“We all need to understand who is to blame,” Ms Harris said on Friday. “Donald Trump is the architect of this health crisis.”
“A second Trump term will be even worse…he will sign a national abortion ban,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the Trump campaign denied supporting a national ban, saying she “couldn't have been more clear. These are decisions for the people of each state to make.”
Arizona's 160-year-old law has given Ms. Harris and her fellow Democrats another opportunity to focus their 2024 reelection efforts on abortion, which has proven effective in local and state races.
Mr Trump has tried to distance himself from Arizona's ban, calling on state politicians to repeal the law.
Speaking from his West Palm Beach home on Friday afternoon, Mr Trump said the 1864 law was “going to be replaced by the government”.
But he was also credited with “breaking” Roe. “We did something that no one else could, and we gave it back to the states, and the states are doing really well,” he said.
“It works the way it's supposed to,” he said.
Gary Lake, the Republican candidate for an open Arizona Senate seat and a close ally of Mr Trump, has publicly disavowed the legislation and called the ban “out of line” with state voters on Thursday.
Ms Lake previously praised the ban, calling it a “great piece of legislation”.
It is not yet clear when and how the 1864 ban will be enforced.
The Arizona Supreme Court put the ruling on hold for at least 14 days while a lower court considered additional arguments about the law's constitutionality.
Chris Mayes, the state's Democratic attorney general, has said he will not prosecute abortion providers or those who have had abortions. Initial efforts by Democrats to repeal the law in the state legislature were thwarted by senior Republicans.
Arizona voters may have a chance to change the law themselves with a ballot initiative that could protect abortion rights up to 24 weeks of pregnancy if passed in November.
Pro-choice activists in the state say they have already reached the signature threshold needed to put the question before voters this fall.
