Kari Lake, the GOP nominee running for Arizona governor, said she wants to give women “true choices” when it comes to abortion — right before she pledged to uphold an abortion ban in the state.
“We need to draw the line somewhere,” the candidate said during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.
More from Rolling Stone
“We’re not giving women choices,” Lake told host Major Garrett. “I’m for giving women true choices. And when they walk into an abortion center, they’re only given one choice. And they’re not told that you have the choice to keep your baby, and we can help and here’s how. Or we can help you find a loving family who will adopt your baby. I want to give women true choices. I will uphold the law, whatever that law is. And I want to see to it that we save more lives.”
Currently, two abortion bans are on the books in Arizona, and Lake has promised she will uphold whichever one the courts decide takes precedence. One is current Governor Doug Ducey’s recently-signed law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks, and the other is a near-total abortion ban from 1864. Both allow exceptions only to save the life of the pregnant person, but not in the cases of rape or incest. The 1800s law also states that abortion providers can be punished with up to five years of imprisonment, while Ducey’s law would charge providers with a class 6 felony and suspend their medical license if they violate the ban. On Friday, an appellate court issued a stay on the historic law while an appeal filed by Planned Parenthood of Arizona makes its way through the judicial system.
Previously, Lake hailed the Civil War era ban as a “great law,” and she endorsed Texas’ six-week abortion ban, saying she would sign a similar bill in a “heartbeat” if she became Arizona’s governor.
During the Sunday interview, Lake not only stood up for bans, she also misrepresented her opponent’s stance on abortion, claiming Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs is “for abortion right up until birth.” “If you are in the hospital in labor, the abortionists are for giving you an abortion, if you desire one,” Lake said, using a favored Republican (and Trump) talking point that wildly exaggerates the rare circumstances under which abortions later in pregnancy occur.
Responding to Lake’s assertion, Hobbs said the Republican misrepresents her position. “I don’t support the 15-week ban,” Hobbs said in her Face the Nation interview that followed Lake’s. “But let me just say that Kari Lake is entirely misconstruing my position on this issue. You and I both know that late-term abortion is extremely rare. And if it’s being talked about, it’s because something has gone incredibly wrong in a pregnancy. A doctor’s not going to perform an abortion late in a pregnancy just because somebody decided they want one. That is ridiculous. And she’s saying this to distract from her incredibly extreme position.”
“Under a Kari Lake administration,” Hobbs added, “We would have government mandated forced births that risk women’s lives… Under her administration, women would not be safe.”
Best of Rolling Stone
Click here to read the full article.
