Jill Biden warned that women could die under a Donald Trump presidency as she highlighted the importance of reproductive rights in this year's elections.
The first lady, during a rally in Arizona to get Kamala Harris to vote, warned that Trump was taking the country back to the pre-Roe vs. Wade, after his Supreme Court picks helped overturn the landmark abortion rights ruling.
'Secrecy, shame, silence, danger and even death. That was the reality back then, and that’s where Donald Trump has left women today,” she said.
She noted that after Roe was repealed, she was “shocked, devastated, but looking back, I knew I shouldn’t have been so surprised.” I knew that Donald Trump had handpicked three judges to restrict reproductive freedom.'
Democrats view abortion rights as a winning issue, having used it to rally their base at the voting booth in the 2022 midterm elections.
The first lady, who is campaigning in five states for Harris, will belabor the point repeatedly during her stops in key battleground states.
Jill Biden warns that women could die under Donald Trump's presidency
Abortion is a major issue in Arizona, which has Proposition 139, an amendment to the Arizona Constitution to add the fundamental right to abortion, on the November ballot.
The first lady's stop was part of the Harris campaign's Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour, which is making several stops in Arizona.
Actors Bryan Cranston and Sophia Bush are part of the tour. Biden greeted both men with hugs as he thanked the volunteers on the bus.
Trump tried to take credit for overturning Roe v. Wade. Wade, which has been a longtime goal of evangelical and conservative voters — while avoiding political fallout. He said abortion rights should be decided by the states.
Biden, during his remarks in Phoenix on Saturday night, warned that “today our daughters and granddaughters live with fewer rights than we had.”
This November 10, states will have abortion measures on their ballots, seeking to affirm that the state constitution protects the right to abortion or that nothing in the constitution confers such a right, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Following the Supreme Court's June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 13 states have an outright abortion ban and 28 states have abortion bans based on the length of pregnancy.
“The government shouldn’t tell women what to do. So let’s elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Biden told the cheering crowd.
She urged people to do this for “the generations of women who fought for our rights and for all the men who understand that this is their fight too.”
He added: 'The girls will grow up in the world we will decide in November.'
Arizona is one of the most hotly contested battlegrounds of the 2024 election. Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are spending considerable resources here.
And it was where Jill Biden made her first campaign stop for Kamala Harris, touting her candidacy at two-day events.
Trump will hold a rally in Phoenix on Sunday. He is leading 51% to Harris' 46% in the state New York Times/Search Sienna found.
Donald Trump said abortion should be decided by the states
The first lady took advantage of previous events in Arizona to criticize Trump for supporting abortion bans and tax incentives for businesses, describing the former president as greedy and selfish.
She also addressed 'lies' about Harris, who has been the subject of conspiracy theories and false claims by Trump.
“You're probably already hearing all kinds of lies about Kamala,” she said at an event in Yuma on Friday night. She went on to describe Harris' work as California attorney general, senator and vice president.
Trump falsely accused Harris of lying about working at McDonalds when she was a teenager and misrepresenting the role she played in the Biden administration's work on border security.
Jill Biden painted a more compassionate picture of the Democratic presidential candidate, talking about her work fighting crime as attorney general and how she helped a high school friend who was experiencing abuse.
“That’s the Kamala Harris I know — a quick, tough, compassionate and decisive leader, and that’s the kind of president you deserve, Arizona,” she said.
And Biden has repeatedly attacked Trump for his role in appointing Supreme Court judges who voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Wade.
“Donald Trump’s abortion ban has taken away women’s ability to make their own health care decisions,” she said.
'No one has to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that the government should not tell women what to do with their bodies.'
In addition to the first lady, Harris' campaign sent running mate Tim Walz and second gentleman Doug Emhoff to Arizona.
Harris spent Thursday and Friday in the Phoenix area, where she also emphasized the fight for abortion rights.
Jill Biden made her first campaign stop for Kamala Harris, rallying voters in Arizona
Early voting has begun in Arizona and the first lady reminded people that President Biden only won the state by 10,457 votes in the 2020 race.
In Phoenix on Saturday morning, she spoke to a group of educators out canvassing and reminded them that every vote counts.
'You know the first time I voted I almost didn't vote for my future husband. And truth. Can you imagine if I hadn't? I mean, thank God I made it,” she said.
She noticed she was a student at the University of Delaware at the time and Joe Biden was running for senator.
“Joe actually won the election by just 3,000 votes, so it could easily have happened the other way around,” she said.
This is Jill Biden's fourth time in Arizona this year, but her first appearance for Kamala Harris.
She kicked off a campaign for the Democratic nominee on Friday in Yuma, Arizona.
She will be in Carson City and Reno, Nevada, on Sunday, while spending Monday in the Detroit suburbs and Madison, Wisconsin.
His trip will end on Tuesday with a stop in his hometown of Philadelphia.
