Biden campaign launches ad blitz in Arizona following abortion ruling

The Biden campaign launched an ad Thursday aimed at Arizona voters after the state’s Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law earlier this week that makes performing abortion a felony.

The ad features President Biden speaking directly to voters about the risk former President Trump poses to abortion access for millions of women.

“The question is — if Donald Trump gets back in power, what freedom will you lose next?” Biden says in the 30-second ad.

“Your body and your decisions belong to you. Not the government, not Donald Trump,” Biden says. “I will fight like hell to get your freedom back.”

The Biden campaign is investing more than $1 million in the ad blitz in the Grand Canyon State, which will also include a testimonial ad that features Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who had to travel outside the state after she was denied care despite a life-threatening infection following a miscarriage.

The ad campaign in Arizona will target younger, female and Latino voters in the state throughout the month of April, the campaign said, with the spots airing during primetime shows such as “Abbott Elementary,” “Survivor,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “American Idol,” “The Voice” and “Saturday Night Live.”

“This week, women across the state of Arizona are watching in horror as an abortion ban from 1864 with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of a woman will soon become the law of the land for Arizonans. This nightmare is only possible because of Donald Trump,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

Vice President Harris is scheduled to travel to Arizona on Friday for a rally focused on reproductive rights.

The Arizona Supreme Court rejected arguments earlier this week that it should uphold the 15-week abortion ban signed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R) in 2022 and enforced after the end of Roe v. Wade. 

Instead, the court ruled that the Civil War-era law passed before Arizona was even a state should be enforced. The court ruled to lift a stay on the law, meaning it goes into effect in 14 days.

However, the justices also sent the case back to a lower trial court to sort out questions about the law’s constitutionality.

The century-old law makes abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs or helps a woman obtain one. It includes an extremely narrow exception, allowing an abortion “when it is necessary” to save a pregnant person’s life.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) called for the 1864 ban to be repealed, and the state’s Democratic attorney general has said she will not enforce any bans on abortion.

Trump, the presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican Party, told reporters Wednesday he thought the Arizona law went too far and expected it to be “straightened out.”

But the former president has repeatedly said this week that it should be left up to the states to determine abortion policy, rejecting calls for a national ban. He has frequently expressed pride in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, prompting Democrats to tie Trump directly to the state-level bans enacted following the end of Roe.

“For 52 years, people have wanted to end Roe v. Wade to get it back to the states. We did that,” Trump said Wednesday. “It was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement. We did that.”

“Now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want,” he continued. “It’s the will of the people.”