Elisabeth Frantz/Reuters/File
Gary Lake addresses the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland on February 24.
CNN
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Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake Actively lobbying to overthrow state legislators a A 160-year-old law He once supported banning abortion in nearly all cases, a source with knowledge of his efforts told CNN.
Lake is pushing to repeal the law when GOP lawmakers in his home state walk away from it The law was signed into law in 2022 Republican Gov. Doug Ducey would restrict abortions to the first 15 weeks. Arizona Supreme Court The regime formed on Tuesday The government must uphold a Civil War-era law banning all abortions “except those necessary to save the life of a woman.”
“Lake has called the state legislators and given them the necessary help and support to repeal the territorial law, so it reverts to the 15-week TUC law,” the source said.
The move continues Lake's remarkable 180-degree flip on state abortion law and illustrates Republican concerns about how the issue stands. echoes in a key battleground state.
as candidate for governor In 2022, Lake called the 1864 law “tremendous” and said he supported the court's decision on whether to enforce it.
“We're going to set the stage, we're going to pave the way, we're going to set the path for other states to follow,” Lake said at the time.
But Lake reversed his stance following Tuesday's Arizona Supreme Court ruling, calling on the state's Democratic governor and GOP-controlled Legislature to “come up with an immediate common sense solution that the people of Arizona can support.”
Her sharp core also connects her with her close ally, former President Donald Trump. Election Year Change on Abortion. In a statement on Monday, Trump said the future of abortion access in the United States should be decided by the states, leaving the status quo created when the U.S. Supreme Court was led by its three elected justices. Ended the federal right to abortion.
Still, Arizona's ruling forced Trump to quickly confront the implications of that stance, and on Wednesday, the former president sought to distance himself from the reality he helped create by suggesting that the Arizona law would be “straightened out.”
“I'm sure the governor and everybody will bring it back to reason and it will be taken care of very quickly,” he said. “Arizona is definitely going to change. Everyone wants that to happen.”
Hours later, Arizona Republican lawmakers defeated an effort to vote on repealing the state's law. As stated therein Arizona Republic, State Representative. Matt Kress tried to initiate a vote to repeal the law before fellow GOP state Rep. David Livingston cut him short with a motion to adjourn. Kress told the publication he voted against the adjournment motion.
Democrats in the state House began protesting as Republicans walked out of the chamber after successfully blocking an attempt to bring the repeal bill to a vote, the newspaper reported.
Marcus Del Ordino, a Republican strategist in Arizona, said he doubts anti-abortion hardliners in the state legislature — who celebrated the court's decision — are amenable to lobbying from Lake or Trump.
“I don't know how you can change their status with one phone call,” he said. “I can't figure out mathematically how they're going to get votes.”
The Arizona Supreme Court ruling has become a turning point in the state's ongoing battle over abortion access that could have massive political implications for the future. Grand Canyon State is a The main battlefield In this year's battle for control of the Senate and the White House.
A decision planned and celebrated by Trump – Roe v. Democrats have rallied to remind state voters that the ruling was only made possible by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Wade.
CNN's Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.
