Fox News’ Sean Hannity is blaming Arizona Democrats for sitting on their hands after the state’s Republican-stacked Supreme Court’s decision that revived an 1864 law that criminalizes abortion throughout pregnancy unless a woman’s life is at risk.
He claims they’re using the unpopular ban — even among some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump — to help tip the state toward President Joe Biden in the fall.
“If Democrats — you want to get rid of the law, well, you have a chance right now to get rid of it. And I would advise you, get rid of it!” Hannity said recently. “They would rather use it as a political tool ahead of November.”
The left-leaning journalism watchdog group Media Matters pointed out Hannity started attacking Arizona Democrats after he originally called on the state’s GOP to step in.
“This is my message for all of you elected state Republican leaders out there in Arizona. Get your act together. Change the law now, and that means every Republican has to stay united, and you better understand where the people in this country are on the issue of abortion. Putting aside over 50% of abortions are now done with the pill, put that aside. And what you need to do is follow the Dobbs decision, 15 weeks, follow the first-trimester decision, whatever it is. And then you’ve got to force your Democratic governor, Hobbs, to sign a bill that says no late-term abortions, no abortions based on gender or race,” Hannity said earlier.
Left unsaid is some GOP lawmakers in the state support the near-total ban and the GOP likely doesn’t have the votes to get a bill to the state’s Democratic governor’s desk.
“And the speaker of the House and the Senate president both weighed in, in this case, with an amicus brief, urging the court to do exactly what it did today,” Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said the day the court’s decision.
“The fact is that some of the Republicans right now who are saying that this decision went too far are the same politicians who celebrated the Dobbs decision, which paved the way for this court ruling today,” she said.
The state’s Republican-led legislature is pretty evenly divided and there’s an argument Democrats could band together with Republicans to send Hobbs legislation. But enough Republicans would still need to get onboard since they control both chambers.
According to AP VoteCast, 6 out of 10 Arizona voters in the 2022 midterm elections said they would favor guaranteeing legal abortion nationwide. The state recorded 11,530 abortions in 2022, the last data available, according to Arizona’s Department of Health Services.
Abortion rights advocates said they’ve gathered more than 500,000 signatures for the petition from the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign — far above what they need to add a ballot question asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment protecting the right to abortion until viability, when a fetus could survive outside the womb.
Arriving for a campaign fundraiser in Atlanta, Trump said the Arizona court decision went too far and called on state lawmakers to change it even as he defended the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Biden narrowly won the state in 2020.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.
