(The Center Square) – Democrats continue to make abortion a top issue of their campaign in the 2024 election in Arizona.
Congressman Greg Stanton was joined by United States House of Representative Democratic Minority Whip Katherine Clark and abortion access advocates for a roundtable on the issue on Thursday.
“This is not only the impacts that we know on women and their health care but it impacts a whole healthcare system,” Clark said.
“Every time reproductive rights have been on the ballot it’s won,” she added.
Stanton referred to 2024 as the “most dangerous election” given the role abortion policy plays following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which brought the issue back to the state.
At the roundtable, there was a discussion about abortion policy at the state level as well as the desire for Democrats to codifying provisions in Roe at the federal level if there is a unified government in Washington come 2025. Democrats currently hold the presidency and the Senate, but Republicans have a narrow majority in the House.
“We have to deal with it on a national level,” Stanton said.
According to a CBS News/YouGov poll among adults in Arizona in May, 67% agree that abortion should be legal in “all” or “most” cases. By contract, 34% of adults surveyed say it should be illegal in “all” or “most” cases. Sixty-five percent also back an amendment for a “constitutional right to an abortion” when asked.
In Arizona, proposed constitutional amendment is expected to be decided by Arizona voters in November that would allow abortion up until “fetal violability.” However, opponents such as the “It Goes Too Far” argue that the language of the amendment would allow for “painful, late-term abortion,” according to its website.
Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a repeal of a law created in 1864 that would ban abortion in nearly all circumstances, but there is a narrow time frame where the law could take effect. The repeal came after the state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that the stay could be lifted on the law instead of keeping a 15-week law passed in 2022 to continue being enforceable.
“It’s all on Arizona,” Clark quipped.
