OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Despite all that is going on in the world, President Joe Biden took time out of his day to criticize a state Supreme Court ruling regarding an abortion law dating back to 1864.
The Arizona Supreme Court upheld the law, which bans most abortions, though it does provide an exception for when the life of the mother is in danger. The law also requires jail sentences of between two and five years for healthcare providers who perform the procedure, the Washington Examiner reported.
“Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest,” he said, according to a statement released by the White House.
Biden added he’s always been a champion of “women’s right to choose.”
“This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864 — more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote,” he continued. “This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.”
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris falsely blamed the Arizona ruling on former President Donald Trump in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
“Arizona just rolled back the clock to a time before women could vote — and, by his own admission, there’s one person responsible: Donald Trump,” she said.
“This even more extreme and dangerous ban criminalizes almost all abortion care in the state and puts women’s lives at risk. It provides no exceptions for rape, incest, or health,” Harris added. “It’s a reality because of Donald Trump, who brags about being ‘proudly the person responsible’ for overturning Roe v. Wade, and made it possible for states to enforce cruel bans.”
The accusation is false because Trump had nothing to do with Arizona’s ruling or, obviously, the initial passage of the law.
“Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose,” Biden concluded his statement. “We will continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade for women in every state.”
The Arizona Supreme Court ruling coincides with an announcement from Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights organizations, stating that they have obtained over 384,000 valid signatures required to place abortion on the ballot in November.
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign and their media cheerleaders spent most of this week harping on Trump for saying that states should decide the issue of abortion, which is in line with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling and the founding principle of federalism.
The Examiner added:
The campaign released a 60-ad “Willow’s Box” ad blaming Trump for a Texas woman nearly dying after she was unable to receive an abortion as she suffered a miscarriage.
Campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez released a memo arguing Trump would ban abortion nationwide.
“Donald Trump brags about being the most anti-abortion president in American history, and he’s right. Trump vowed to put ‘pro-life justices on the court,’ and he did,” Rodriguez wrote. “The aftermath that has followed Trump’s actions has been devastating: women’s lives put at risk, doctors threatened for doing their job, attacks on birth control, and threats to IVF fertility treatment — it is a dark preview of what Trump and his Project 2025 extremists will inflict on America.”
Trump has touted his U.S. Supreme Court choices as helping to reverse Roe. But he has never said he would seek to impose a nationwide ban or nationwide restrictions on abortion.
However, Democrats, who have been claiming that Trump is the biggest threat to democracy ever, have proposed enshrining abortion in federal law, thereby taking away citizens’ right to decide the issue via their state representatives and legislatures.
