TL/DR –
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to criticize former President Donald Trump’s abortion restrictions during a campaign rally in Arizona. Harris will argue that a second Trump administration would enforce the Comstock Act, an 1873 federal law banning medication abortion, in all 50 states. The attack comes as Arizona becomes the center of a debate on reproductive rights following a court ruling that upheld an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions.
Vice President Kamala Harris to Challenge Trump’s Abortion Restrictions in Arizona
Vice President Kamala Harris is set to challenge former President Donald Trump in Arizona over abortion restrictions this Friday. She plans to hold him accountable for the bans within the state and nationwide. Speaking at a Tucson rally, Harris will focus on the Biden campaign’s assertion of Trump’s role in reducing abortion access for millions of American women.
Harris also aims to warn about potential enforcement of the Comstock Act, an infrequently used federal law from 1873, by a second Trump administration for a nationwide medication abortion ban. “They seek to utilize another 19th-century law, the Comstock Act, to prohibit medication abortion in all states. This includes states where abortion is currently legal,” Harris is anticipated to declare.
With medication abortions representing the majority of abortions nationwide, enforcement of the Comstock Act could dramatically affect abortion accessibility. While Trump hasn’t publicly referred to the act, some allies are formulating enforcement proposals through executive actions. The disputed law that bans mailing “obscene” materials is now a significant part of a high-profile lawsuit aiming to stop the distribution of abortion pills.
This week, Arizona became a hotbed for the national abortion debate after the state court upheld an 1864 near-total abortion ban. Consequently, Democrats across America have been using abortion rights as a focal point in their campaigns, which has yielded surprising victories over the past two years. The Biden campaign has further amplified these efforts by releasing new ads critiquing Trump’s stance on abortion this week.
As the Tucson event is a campaign rally, Harris is expected to express criticism more vocally. “The blame lies primarily with the former president, Donald Trump, who in his 2016 campaign suggested that women pursuing abortions should be penalized,” her prepared statement says. The timing of Harris’s trip to Arizona, initially centered around student debt, coincided with Trump’s video stating that abortion restrictions should be a state matter released earlier this week, following an Arizona Supreme Court ruling upholding a nearly total abortion ban.
Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, Kari Lake, has had to defend her previous endorsement of the Civil War-era abortion ban. Recently, she released a video stating that “this total ban on abortion” doesn’t align with the state populace’s views.
The political dynamics around abortion have significantly shifted since the Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices ruled in favor of a Mississippi law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, effectively abolishing the constitutional right to an abortion. As Stephanie Schriock, former president of Emily’s List, noted, “This is the first presidential election since Dobbs… it crosses people’s minds because women are dealing with this stuff all the time.”
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