Kari Lake, the far-right US Senate candidate and Donald Trump ally, denounced Arizona’s abortion ban on Thursday, arguing that the strict legislation she previously praised does not have the support of the state’s residents.
“This total ban on abortion the Arizona supreme court just ruled on is out of line with where the people of this state are,” she said in a video on Thursday. “I agree with President Trump – this is such a personal and private issue.”
In a sudden and apparently strategic reversal, Lake and other Republicans in the state have come out against a ruling from the court on Tuesday declaring that a civil war-era law banning abortion in the state is now enforceable. The law, which predates Arizona’s statehood, does not provide exceptions for rape or incest and abortions are permitted only if the mother’s life is at risk.
Donald Trump has said the court went too far: “That’ll be straightened out, and as you know, it’s all about states’ rights.”
Republicans in the statehouse blocked an effort by Democrats on Wednesday to repeal the ban, highlighting the disunity within the party over how to handle an issue that will probably define the 2024 race.
Lake, an unsuccessful candidate for governor in the state and election denier, expressed her support for the law in 2022 after the supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade.
“I’m incredibly thrilled that we are going to have a great law that’s already on the books,” she said in a June 2022 radio interview. “I believe it’s ARS 13-3603, so it will prohibit abortion in Arizona except to save the life of a mother. And I think we’re going to be paving the way and setting course for other states to follow.”
An adviser to Lake on Tuesday argued she was referring to a different law, despite the fact that she cited the number of the 1864 code.
While Republicans celebrated the decision to overturn Roe, the issue has become a political nightmare for the party. Political strategists have said that the near-total ban would draw moderate voters to Democrats and mobilize young voters and voters of color.
“This was an earthquake of epic proportions in Arizona politics,” Barrett Marson, a Phoenix-based Republican strategist, said this week. “Anytime Republicans are talking about abortion, they’re losing. Now, I think the only issue is going to be abortion.”
Doug Ducey, the Republican former governor who expanded the state supreme court and appointed the four conservative justices who ruled the ban is enforceable, has said the court went too far. He said the ruling was “not the outcome I would have preferred”.
Support for abortion in the US remains strong. A survey last year found that 69% of Americans, a record high, believed abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy.
Lake has sought to distance herself from her past comments on Arizona’s law and urged lawmakers to “come up with an immediate commonsense solution that Arizonans can support”. Meanwhile, Politico reported on Thursday that Lake was personally lobbying lawmakers to repeal the law.
In a five-minute video released on Thursday in which she lavished praise on Trump and expressed her agreement with his position no less than three times, Lake said that while she personally opposed abortion, she supported exceptions for rape and incest. “A full ban on abortion is not where the people are,” she said.
She reiterated her support for the decision to overturn Roe, and insisted that if elected to the Senate she would oppose federal funding for abortion as well as a federal ban on abortion.
“I’m not going to Washington DC to impose federal restrictions on something that’s already been sent back to the states,” she said. “I’m going to Washington DC to secure our borders, strengthen our families and help President Trump make America great again.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report