President Joe Biden was asked for his message to Arizonans after the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that an 1864 law criminalizing abortion could go into effect.
“Elect me,” Biden said at a press conference Wednesday with Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“I’m in the 20th century — 21st century. Not back then,” he added. “They weren’t even a state.”
In a 4-2 decision, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the 160-year-old abortion ban is now enforceable, overriding the state’s current 15-week abortion ban, which went into effect in 2022.
The court stayed enforcement of the law for 14 days, and sent the case back to a lower court to hear further arguments. If allowed to proceed, the law would make abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison, except in cases where the pregnant person’s life is at risk.
Questioned by reporters on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, said the Arizona ruling “went too far” and predicted that it would be “straightened out.”
He had issued a murky statement about his views on abortion Monday, suggesting the issue should be left up to states to decide. He claimed Wednesday he would not support a national abortion ban if elected.
Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes (D), denounced the Supreme Court ruling and vowed that during her tenure, “no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state.”