President Joe Biden’s campaign launched a seven-figure ad buy in Arizona about abortion on Thursday in the wake of the state Supreme Court’s decision to uphold an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions, CBS News reported.
“Because of Donald Trump, millions of women lost the fundamental freedom to control their own bodies,” Biden says in the ad. “And now, women’s lives are in danger because of that. The question is, if Donald Trump gets back in power, what freedom will you lose next? Your body and your decisions belong to you, not the government, not Donald Trump. I will fight like hell to get your freedom back.”
The ad is titled “Power Back” and will run this month during certain television programs, including Abbott Elementary, Survivor, Grey’s Anatomy, American Idol, The Voice, and SNL.
“The campaign said it’s particularly seeking to target younger female and Latino residents,” according to the report.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) also seized on the ruling, launching a billboard campaign across the Tempe and Phoenix metro areas in English and Spanish. The billboards reportedly blame former President Donald Trump for enabling the ruling by nominating the Supreme Court justices who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed an invented constitutional right to abortion for 50 years.
Vice President Kamala Harris — the Biden reelection campaign’s designated abortion hype-woman — is scheduled to appear at a “reproductive freedom” event in Tucson on Friday in response to the ruling.
Harris is returning to Arizona after appearing in Phoenix in early March as a part of her pro-abortion tour around the United States ahead of the November presidential election. During the tour, Harris decried Arizona’s previous 15-week abortion limit passed in 2022 and called pro-life advocates “extremists.”
Democrats, as well as President Joe Biden’s campaign, have been heavily banking on driving voter turnout around the topic of abortion, using the issue to paint Republicans as “extreme” and a threat to women. Part of Biden’s strategy has been to blame Trump for the end of Roe, thus tying him to abortion restrictions passed in more than dozen states following the Dobbs decision.
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The Arizona Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday came after Trump revealed his stance that states should ultimately decide on the issue of abortion. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he thinks the 1864 law goes too far.
“It’s all about state’s rights, and that’ll be straightened out,” Trump said. “I’m sure that the governor and everybody else are going to bring it back into reason and that’ll be taken care of, I think very quickly.”
Some prominent Arizona Republicans have notably distanced themselves from the Arizona Supreme Court’s rulings, including Senate candidate Kari Lake and former Gov. Doug Ducey. Other state Republicans have so far blocked efforts to repeal the law.
The 1864 law bars all abortions except to save the life of the mother and also carries a sentence of two to five years for abortionists. Justices heard arguments in the case, Planned Parenthood of Arizona v. Mayes/Hazerigg, in December, and were asked to answer whether or not Arizona’s 15-week abortion limit, passed in March of 2022, overrides the older law.
While the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the 1864 law, the court issued a 4-2 decision with one recusal on Tuesday, finding that the 1864 law is “enforceable” over the newer 15-week limit.
“We consider whether the Arizona Legislature repealed or otherwise restricted [the old law] by enacting … the statute proscribing physicians from performing elective abortions after fifteen weeks’ gestation,” Justice John Lopez wrote for the majority opinion. “This case involves statutory interpretation — it does not rest on the justices’ morals or public policy views regarding abortion; nor does it rest on [the old law’s] constitutionality, which is not before us.”
“Absent the federal constitutional abortion right, and because [the fifteen-week limit] does not independently authorize abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law prohibiting [the 1864 law’s] operation. Accordingly, [the 1864 law] is now enforceable,” Lopez continued.
The Arizona Supreme Court ultimately affirmed a lower court’s decision vacating an injunction against the near-total ban but stayed the total enforcement of the law for 14 days to allow for parties to decide how to pursue further action. The state’s high court also remanded the case to trial court for potential consideration of remaining constitutional challenges.
The state supreme court decision comes as pro-abortion activists are moving forward with a proposed amendment that would create a constitutional right to abortion in Arizona.
Arizona for Abortion Access — a coalition of groups including ACLU of Arizona, Affirm Sexual and Reproductive Health, Arizona List, Healthcare Rising Arizona, NARAL Arizona, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona — said last week that they had amassed more than 500,000 signatures, well past the 383,923 required for the proposed amendment to qualify for the ballot in November. If the abortion measure makes it on the November ballot, it would need a simple majority to pass.
Arizona is one of nearly a dozen states where pro-abortion activists are working to codify the right to kill the unborn.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
