What They’re Saying: “Don’t buy Kari Lake’s fake concern over an Arizona Supreme Court abortion ruling”

In the wake of Arizona’s Supreme Court reinstating a near total abortion ban from 1864, a flood of news coverage has detailed “avowedly anti-abortion” Lake’s extensive record of supporting dangerous abortion bans – including the now active 1864 ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Here’s what they’re saying: 

MSNBC’s Morning Joe
April 10, 2024

Kari Lake: “I’m incredibly thrilled that we are going to have a great law that’s already on the books. So it will prohibit abortion in Arizona and I think we’re going to be paving the way and setting course for other states to follow it.”

CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront
April 9, 2024

Erin Burnett: “You might say, ‘Oh, who’s ever heard of a law from 1864?’ Well, Kari Lake had. And in fact, she had ardently supported this very law from 1864.” 

AZ Republic: Don’t buy Kari Lake’s fake concern over an Arizona Supreme Court abortion ruling
By EJ Montini
April 9, 2024

• The record speaks for itself. The kids call that “receipts.”

Washington Post: ‘Catastrophic,’ ‘a shock’: Arizona’s abortion ruling threatens to upend 2024 races
By Maegan Vazquez and Mariana Alfaro
April 10, 2024

• Lake had previously celebrated the overturning of Roe and once expressed support for the 1864 bill. 

• At a GOP gubernatorial debate in 2022, Lake said she approved of the territorial-era law banning all abortions.

• “My personal belief is that all life matters. All life counts, and all life is precious, and I don’t believe in abortion,” she said then. “I think the older law is going to take and is going to go into effect. That’s what I believe will happen.”

• Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokeswoman Maeve Coyle highlighted Lake’s previous support of the 1864 law, saying that “Arizonans must reject this abortion ban and reject Kari Lake at the ballot box” to restore “their rights and freedoms.”

Business Insider: GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake bashes Arizona’s new abortion ban. She praised it less than 2 years ago.
By Bryan Metzger
April 9, 2024

• Lake said in a local radio interview that she supported the 1864 law, according to Politifact.

• “I’m incredibly thrilled that we are going to have a great law that’s already on the books,” Lake said in that interview, adding: “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.”

HuffPost: Kari Lake Wants You To Forget She Supported Arizona’s Near-Total Abortion Ban
By Daniel Marans and Liz Skalka
April 9, 2024

• In February 2022, when Lake appeared at a candidate forum while running for governor, her thoughts on the near-total ban were much different.

• “We have a great law on the books right now,” Lake said of the old law, which had become unenforceable under Roe v. Wade. A month later, Arizona passed a 15-week ban in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s decision ultimately overturning abortion protections.

Axios: GOP suffers desert meltdown on abortion
By Justin Green
April 9, 2024

• Lake in 2022: The near-total ban is a “great law” and sets an example for other states.

Rolling Stone: Kari Lake Claims She Opposes Arizona Abortion Ban She Once Called ‘Great’
By Nikki Mccann Ramirez
April 9, 2024

• Kari Lake once called an archaic Arizona law that bans abortion in the state a “great” law that she would be “incredibly thrilled” to have it go into effect. 

• During the 2022 Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary debate, Lake stated that her “personal belief is that all life matters. All life counts, and all life is precious, and I don’t believe in abortion,” adding that she felt the 1864 law “is going to take and is going to go into effect. That’s what I believe will happen.”

• Lake is learning just how hard it is to outrun her record on reproductive rights. 

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