The conservative Arizona Freedom Caucus has defended the state Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate a 160-year-old near-total ban on abortion and condemned Republicans who oppose it, such as Kari Lake.
Lake, a Senate candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has publicly opposed the Arizona Supreme Court ruling, perhaps in a bid to make herself more palatable to independent and moderate Republican voters.
“As Republicans, we should be unashamed in proclaiming the value of life,” the Arizona Freedom Caucus wrote in a press release on April 9.
The issue of abortion rights has proved tricky for conservative Republican candidates across the country, with Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive 2024 presidential nominee, saying the issue could cost them the election.
Newsweek has contacted Lake’s office and the Arizona Freedom Caucus for comment by email.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Image
On April 9, Arizona’s highest court, whose justices are all Republican appointees, voted 4-2 to uphold an 1864 law that bans almost all abortions, except those necessary to save a pregnant person’s life. There is no exception for rape or incest.
While the justices placed a temporary hold on the law and sent it back to a lower court to hear challenges to it, the long-dormant law could be something of a political earthquake if it is enforced in the battleground state—where polls collected by FiveThirtyEight show Trump leading President Joe Biden by a few percentage points.
In a statement Tuesday, Lake said, “I oppose today’s ruling, and I am calling on Katie Hobbs and the State Legislature to come up with an immediate common sense solution that Arizonans can support.”
Lake’s appeal to Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic governor and her former rival—whose victory in November 2022 she has refused to recognize—contrasts her previous statements supporting a near-total abortion ban in other states.
Lake’s recent stance on abortion appears to be in line with Trump’s. The former president said on April 8 that abortion access should be a question for individual states only.
Tuesday, the State Freedom Caucus Network wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Unlike some Republicans, State Freedom Caucuses never back down on the issue of life,” while reposting the press release from the Arizona Freedom Caucus.
The press release said: “Sadly, it seems that some are choosing to reject the fundamental, core principle of protecting life. Some have chosen instead to jump on the bandwagon to legalize unrestricted abortions for the first 15 weeks of pregnancy—a position that would permit 95 percent of all existing abortions to continue. This is unacceptable, morally wrong, and abrasively out of step with the central tenants of the Republican Party Platform and Republican voters.”
🚨 STATEMENT ON ARIZONA SUPREME COURT’S PRO-LIFE RULING 🚨
Today, the Supreme Court of Arizona made the correct ruling, upheld the intent of the legislature, and preserved the rule of law today by ruling that the pre-Roe law will remain effective.
Protecting the lives of… pic.twitter.com/SPbr7Bamhe
— Arizona Freedom Caucus (@AZFreedomCaucus) April 9, 2024
According to a 2023 poll conducted by Gallup, 13 percent of Americans believed abortion should be illegal in all circumstances; 51 percent believed abortion should be legal “only under certain circumstances”; and 34 percent believed it should be legal “under any circumstances.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.