Mark Kelly: ‘Women Could Die’ from Arizona 1864 Ruling ‘Enabled’ by Trump

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that women in his state could die from a 123-year-old law that bans nearly all abortions except to save the life of the mother.

Partial transcript as follows:

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you about what’s happening in your home state of Arizona, as you know the State Court ruled an 1864 Civil War era law can take effect that would criminalize abortion, it’s on hold at the moment, but this is a live issue. Do you have confidence that your state legislators will take action before it goes into effect?

KELLY: Well, let me start by saying this has been a disaster for women in Arizona. They’ve lost a fundamental right to abortion, and it’s all because of Donald Trump. And our legislature, yeah, they tried to fix this a couple of days ago, that did not work. We’ve got to get- we’ve got a ballot initiative in November to fix this. Donald Trump owns this. He said just yesterday that he broke Roe v. Wade and because he did that, this enabled our court to bring back this draconian 1864 law to take away this right, send doctors to jail.

BRENNAN: I mean, to be fair, your Republican state legislators have some agency here too, they could have done something different, but I take your rhetorical point.

KELLY: They could have. Yeah, they could have and right, they did not do- do anything about it. They had the opportunity.

BRENNAN: But, there is that initiative you just mentioned to put on the ballot in November a chance for your state to vote on this particular issue and it would guarantee abortion access up to viability, which is anywhere between 21 and 24 weeks, typically, of pregnancy. From a political position, how much is this going to help offset some of the disappointment and exhaustion we’re seeing in polling from Democratic voters? Will this issue drive up turnout in a way that benefits the president in your state?

KELLY: Well, my first concern is women in Arizona and their- and their health and women could die from this 1864 ruling that once again was enabled by the former president. So that’s my biggest concern. We’re going to have an election in November. I imagine we’re going to have large turnout because of this issue. I also want to point out, Margaret, that I don’t think this represents who we are in the state of Arizona. This is a moment in time, we’re gonna get through this. We have an opportunity to fix this in November.

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN