Kamala Harris Blames Trump for Abortion Bans at Arizona Campaign Stop

Vice President Kamala Harris laid into former President Donald J. Trump over abortion rights at a campaign rally in Arizona on Friday, accusing him of being directly responsible for a court decision this week that upheld the state’s 160-year-old near-total ban on abortion.

“Overturning Roe was just the opening act,” Ms. Harris told a crowd of several dozen supporters at a community center in Tucson, Ariz. “Just the opening act of a larger strategy to take women’s rights and freedoms. Part of a full-on attack — state by state — on reproductive freedom. And we all must understand who is to blame: Former President Donald Trump did this.”

Ms. Harris went on to call abortion restrictions in states like Arizona “Trump’s abortion bans.”

This week, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, without exceptions for rape or incest, could be enforced, although not right away. Doctors could face prosecution under the law, which dates to a time before Arizona became a state.

The court’s decision came the day after Mr. Trump said that abortion should be left to the states, underscoring the unfavorable political terrain for Republicans on the issue. As president, Mr. Trump appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, which has led to a proliferation of abortion bans across red states.

Democrats, led by Ms. Harris, have seized on the Arizona law. The Biden campaign released a new messaging campaign with the tagline: “Donald Trump did this.” Abortion rights groups in Arizona have set up rallies around the state, which has a race for an open Senate seat this year that could determine control of the chamber.

“This has been a very, very scary week for our state of Arizona,” said Representative Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who is running for that Senate seat against Kari Lake, a Republican. “Tuesday’s decision rocked all of us. We now have the nation’s most extreme abortion ban.”