Kari Lake Blasts Abortion Ban She Once Was ‘Thrilled’ About

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to reinstate a 160-year-old abortion ban—and Republicans who previously backed it, including Senate candidate Kari Lake, immediately began flip-flopping.

The court overturned a 2022 law that allows for abortions until 15 weeks, paving the way for an 1864 ban that prohibits the procedure in almost all cases, except to save the life of the mother.

The state’s highest court first heard arguments on the case in December, after the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that the two conflicting abortion bans needed to be “harmonized.”

The justices said in a 4-2 decision Tuesday that the overturn of Roe v Wade, the federal law protecting abortion until viability, meant there is nothing barring the decades-old ban from taking effect. They ruled the law can be enforced in 14 days, and until then the parties can raise additional constitutional questions with a lower court.

The decision follows a ruling from the Florida Supreme Court last week allowing a six-week abortion ban to take effect there, bringing the number of states with near-total abortion bans to 16.

An umbrella group called Arizona for Abortion Access announced last week it has gathered enough signatures to place a measure on the November ballot asking voters to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Much like in Florida, where advocates lined up a similar ballot measure, experts believe it could bring more Democratic voters to the Arizona polls in November.

In a statement after the decision was released, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams called Arizona “one of the most important battlegrounds in 2024,” adding that Democrats are “just a handful of seats away from flipping each chamber of the Arizona state legislature.”

Meanwhile, avowedly anti-abortion Republicans like Lake, who is running against U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D) for an Arizona Senate seat, attempted to distance themselves from the decision.

Lake, who previously called the 1864 ban a “great law,” said she opposes Tuesday’s ruling and called on the state legislature to come up with an “immediate common sense solution that Arizonans can support.”

“I am the only woman and mother in this race,” Lake said in a statement. “I wholeheartedly agree with President Trump—this is a very personal issue that should be determined by each individual state and her people.”

Lake previously attempted to walk back her statements on the law—which she told a conservative radio host she would be “thrilled” to see take effect—in an interview with NBC News earlier this month.

Despite reiterating her support of the territorial ban as recently as November 2023, Lake told NBC she no longer supports it, and said she “trust[s] the people of Arizona to vote on this, if that’s what happens, and get this right.”

Gallego, meanwhile, called Tuesday’s decision “devastating” and said politicians like Lake “are forcing themselves into doctor’s offices and ripping away the right for women to make their own healthcare decisions.”

Lake was not the only anti-abortion lawmaker seeking distance. U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican running for re-election in a vulnerable district in November, previously said abortion should be a left to the states but called the Arizona Supreme Court ruling a “disaster” on Tuesday.

“The territorial law is archaic,” he said in a statement. “We must do better and I call on our state policymakers to immediately address this in a bipartisan manner.”

Ciscomani previously voted to ban the sale of abortion medication at retail pharmacies, to prohibit the Defense Department from paying for military members’ abortions, and to prohibit the use of federal funds from paying for the procedure as part of larger spending and defense bills.

Rep. David Schweikert, another Republican running in a vulnerable district, said the issue should “decided by Arizonans, not legislated from the bench” and encouraged the state legislature to address the issue “immediately.”

Schweikert previously sponsored the Life At Conception Act, a federal ban on abortion from the moment of conception.

Democrats and abortion rights supporters also denounced the decision, with Attorney General Kris Mayes calling the ban “unconscionable” and reiterating her vow not to prosecute anyone for violating it.

Athena Salman, director of Arizona campaigns for Reproductive Freedom for All, said the law will “put people in life-threatening situations and force many to flee the state for the care that they need.”

“We won’t stop fighting back alongside our partners to restore abortion access in Arizona,” she said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona said in a statement that it would continue providing abortions through 15 weeks for “a short period of time” before the decision takes effect.

“Let me be clear, this is not the end of our fight,’ said Planned Parenthood Arizona President Angela Florez. “While today we feel frustrated and dismayed with the Court for stripping our legal right to essential health care, we must harness our anger and take action. We must spread the word and urge our lawmakers to support reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.”

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