April 13, 20248:43 PM GMT+1
April 13 (Reuters) - Thousands of reproductive rights supporters rallied on Saturday in Florida to support a voter referendum that would enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution, an effort Democrats hope will boost their chances to win the Southern state in November's presidential election.
Activists in Arizona – where a similar ballot measure campaign is ongoing – have announced a rally on Sunday in Scottsdale to protest the decision from the state's highest court on Tuesday reviving a 160-year-old abortion ban.
The weekend events cap a whirlwind few days that thrust abortion back to the forefront of the presidential campaign between Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump. Arizona is likely to be a crucial swing state in November's vote, and the state will also host one of the country's most competitive U.S. Senate contests.
The issue of abortion has bedeviled Republicans since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority – including three Trump appointees – reversed five decades of precedent and eliminated a nationwide right to abortion.
Democrats this week immediately seized on the court's decision, which found that an 1864 near-total ban should supersede a 15-week limit that Republican state lawmakers passed in 2022. The Biden campaign dispatched Vice President Kamala Harris to Arizona on Friday, where she said Trump bore responsibility for the ruling.
Trump has sought to distance himself from the decision, saying the court went too far and urging the Republican-controlled legislature to repeal the 1864 ban. But Republican leaders blocked a Democratic effort to do so on Wednesday, noting the law would not take effect for weeks and saying they did not want to rush.
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