Abortion Jumps to the Center of Arizona’s Key 2024 Races
Democrats seized on a ruling on Tuesday by Arizona’s highest court upholding an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions, setting up a fierce political fight over the issue that is likely to dominate the presidential election and a pivotal Senate race in a crucial battleground state.
Even though the court put its ruling on hold for now, President Biden and his campaign moved quickly to blame former President Donald J. Trump for the loss of abortion rights, noting that he has taken credit for appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned a constitutional right to abortion. Just a day earlier, Mr. Trump had sought to defang what has become a toxic issue for Republicans by saying that abortion restrictions should be decided by the states and their voters.
Mr. Trump offered no immediate response to the decision, but Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for his campaign, said: “President Trump could not have been more clear. These are decisions for people of each state to make.”
Nowhere are the politics of abortion more distilled than in Arizona, where liberal advocates have been pushing for a ballot measure in November that would enshrine abortion rights in the State Constitution. Supporters of the measure say they have already gathered enough signatures to put the question on the ballot ahead of a deadline in early July.
That means the state is likely to be front and center in a national push by Democrats to transform the 2024 race into another referendum on abortion rights.
The issue has emerged as one of the party’s strongest political weapons since the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, powering them to a series of electoral victories. The Arizona ruling on Tuesday will pose yet another test for Republicans, who after decades of efforts to limit abortion rights and access have struggled to find a winning message on the issue amid the transformed politics of the post-Roe era.