Kamala Harris on abortion during campaign in Phoenix: 5 key takeaways

PHOENIX — Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion protections, Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in the 2024 battleground state of Arizona to discuss “reproductive freedom,” a cornerstone of her and President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.

Below are five key takeaways from his Monday campaign stop at Warehouse215 in downtown Phoenix.

Harris nears record number of visits to Arizona in an election cycle

Harris is closing in on a record for visits to the Grand Canyon State during an election year and the previous year, according to a tally by the Arizona Republic, a USA TODAY Network partner, of visits by presidential and vice presidential candidates dating back to 1996.

With five months to go until the November general election, Harris has visited Arizona six times since the start of 2023.

Former President Donald Trump made seven visits to Arizona before the 2016 election. Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence visited Arizona seven more times before the 2020 election.

In total, Biden and Harris have made nine stops in Arizona since 2023 began. Trump has visited Arizona once during that time.

Harris blames Trump for abortion ban

At the campaign event, Harris noted that Trump’s presidency set the stage for the overturning of the landmark 1973 abortion case, Roe v. Wade. It’s a common talking point on the campaign trail in a state where recent abortion restrictions are expected to boost Democratic turnout in the upcoming election.

“Donald Trump says he feels proudly responsible for what he has done,” Harris said.

Trump’s campaign has accused Democrats of misrepresenting his platform on abortion. Democrats have said Trump would sign a national law banning abortion if elected. Although he has hinted in the past at his support for a national abortion law, in his current campaign Trump called for state laws on the issue rather than a national law.

Harris highlighted the wave of state-level abortion bans enacted after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

“Think about what this means to real people every day,” he said.

Abortion clashes with electoral mathematics

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 abortion rights in the state constitution.

Earlier this year, the Arizona Supreme Court made national headlines when it decided to reinstate a near-total abortion ban passed in 1864 while the state was still a territory.

The law has since been repealed, but the conversation it started is still ongoing. Democrats have highlighted the issue on the campaign trail as evidence of the impact of the Women’s Health Organization’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. A 15-week ban remains in effect in Arizona.

Abortion restrictions are widely expected to boost Democratic turnout in Arizona, where Biden narrowly defeated Trump in 2020.

Trump again distances himself from Arizona abortion ban

Asked for comment, Trump campaign officials argued that Harris’s claims about Trump’s positions were “a desperate attempt to scare voters.”

“The truth is that the Dobbs decision gave power back to the people of each state to make decisions on the issue of abortion,” wrote Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign.

When Arizona’s strict 1864 law went into effect, Trump called on the state legislature to “fix” the law to make it more in line with public opinion.

“The real policies that harm women were created by the Biden-Harris agenda and have led to skyrocketing crime, a fentanyl crisis, and are allowing illegal immigrants to terrorize Arizonans,” Halee Dobbins, Arizona communications director for the Republican National Committee, said in a written statement.

Democrats point to extreme comments within Republican 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 deserves the death penalty in a recent interview with the New York Times.

“If a human being’s life is taken unjustly, what the state should do is apply capital punishment, if it is proven and true. The right to live is lost,” Durbin, a pastor, said in the interview.

Biden campaign adviser Jen Cox wrote in the press release that the comment reflects “the vision of Donald Trump and his allies for the women of our country.”

Trump has said “there has to be some kind of punishment” for people seeking abortions, though he clarified that the doctor who performs the abortion, not the person receiving it, should be held legally responsible. A Trump campaign press contact 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 discuss abortion in Arizona