Tucson:

Democrats on Friday lashed out at Donald Trump on the controversial abortion issue, accusing him of imposing unpopular restrictions that they say are rolling back women’s rights ahead of November’s presidential election.

Days after Arizona became the latest state to outlaw nearly all abortions, Vice President Kamala Harris told a rally that the populist former president was the architect of the ban and warned that if he takes office In the White House, it will be even worse.

“This is what a second Trump term looks like: more prohibitions, more pain and less freedoms,” Harris told supporters in Tucson.

“Like he did in Arizona, he basically wants to take America back to the 1800s.

“But we’re not going to let that happen, because here’s the thing: It’s 2024, not the 1800s. And we’re not going back.”

Just days before Harris entered the battlefield in the Southwest, the conservative Supreme Court restored reproductive rights to the Civil War era, saying an 1864 abortion ban was valid.

The ruling outlaws nearly all terminations of pregnancy, including rape or incest, making Arizona the latest state to severely restrict the procedure.

It comes after the U.S. Supreme Court — which has a conservative majority thanks to three Trump appointments — struck down the decades-old federal guarantee of abortion rights in 2022, Roe v. Wade “.

While state-level bans are popular among Republican evangelicals and some of their elected representatives, most voters disapprove, even in conservative states like Kansas, where they voted to uphold the right.

Harris’ speech was part of Democrats’ strategy to impose the ban on Trump as they try to drum up support for his November opponent, Joe Biden.

In the wake of this week’s ruling by an Arizona court, the party is spending heavily on an ad campaign in the must-win state targeting key Democratic target groups: young people, women and Latino voters.

They hope it will help boost turnout and support for Biden, even though many polls show the 81-year-old trailing his populist predecessor.

“Overturning Roe is just the beginning of a larger strategy to fight for women’s rights and freedoms,” Harris said.

“Donald Trump hand-picked three U.S. Supreme Court justices because he was going to get them to overturn Roe, and they did.

“Now because of Donald Trump, we have over 20 states with bans in place in this country.

“Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis.”

Trump is on the back foot on the issue, bragging about his role in rolling back abortion rights nationwide while urging states not to impose bans on that obvious natural outcome.

On Friday, he again proudly touted his accomplishments and insisted that state laws were working.

Asked whether he would sign a national abortion ban, he told reporters: “We don’t need it anymore because we broke Roe v. Wade.”

“We gave it back to the states, and … it’s working the way it should.”

But earlier in the day, he wrote on his website urging Arizona to change its 160-year-old law.

“The governor and the Arizona Legislature must use heart, common sense and take immediate action to correct what has happened,” he wrote.

“Remember, it’s now up to the states and the goodwill of the people who represent them. Ideally, we have to have three exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.”

The message did not indicate his preferred time frame for abortions and repeated untrue claims that his Democratic opponents support executing babies after birth.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)