It only took a day – and a stunning court ruling reviving a Civil War-era abortion ban in a vital swing state – to disprove Donald Trump’s claim that he had taken the issue of abortion “largely out of play” for the 2024 election.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s order for the state to implement a 160-year-old law, which contains a single exception to save the life of a pregnant person, opened a wide lane for Democrats in a state that could decide the presidential election and the destiny of the Senate. Democrats see an opportunity to campaign on what’s been a winning issue for them recently – reproductive rights – and to appeal especially to suburban women.
The ruling was the latest in a series of hardline court decisions and moves by conservative state legislatures in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s overturning of a constitutional right to an abortion in 2022. It represents yet another significant victory for a 50-year campaign by anti-abortion activists. And it threatened to create another swathe of the United States where abortion services are not available.
For Trump, the timing of the ruling could not have been more glaring.
On Monday, the presumptive Republican nominee had sought to neutralize the abortion issue – one of his greatest vulnerabilities as he seeks to return to the White House. Trump’s punt, which would have all abortion policy left to the states to decide, appeared designed to give the impression that he opposes a federal ban on abortion, even though he had earlier publicly flirted with the possibility of a ban on abortions at 15 weeks. The Biden campaign on Tuesday complained that some reporters had taken the ex-president’s words at face-value on Monday and pointed out he didn’t specifically oppose a ban on abortion.
If what happened in Arizona is what…
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