‘What Century Are We In?’ Biden and VP Harris Blast Civil War-Era Abortion Ban That Was Just Reinstated

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris each tore into a Civil War-era abortion ban that an Arizona judge recently reinstated, as well as other restrictions that date back more than a century.

After the Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, Arizona passed a 15-week abortion ban similar to the national ban being proposed by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. But a week-and-a-half ago, on the eve of that ban taking effect, Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson lifted a Roe-era injunction blocking a 19th-century law that dates back to 1864.

Both Biden and Harris took aim at that decision when they spoke this week at the second meeting of the administration’s Task Force On Reproductive Healthcare Access.

The VP spoke first, and ripped a pair of decisions — the Arizona law and a Wisconsin ban that was enacted in 1849 and triggered into effect by the Dobbs decision:

Today, extremist so-called leaders are attacking the freedom and liberty of millions of women. At a state level, in Arizona, for example, a judge recently upheld an 1864 — that’s not a statute, that’s the year — 1864 abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.

In Wisconsin, as another example, that state activated an abortion ban that was passed in 1849. That’s 173 years ago. And make note that, at that time, women also did not have the right to vote.

What we are seeing in laws around our country is the criminalization of doctors and healthcare providers. In some situations, up to five to six years in prison would be the penalty.

These laws have been written and passed, many of them, when women were deprived, like I said, of their full rights as citizens and the right to vote, when we’re thinking about those laws from 1864 and 1849.

President Biden blasted the Arizona ban, referencing the story of a 14-year-old girl who was denied a critical prescription as a result. Biden also called out what he sees as steps targeting the right to contraception, like a new University of Idaho policy spurred by a state law:

We have doctors here with us today who are on the frontlines of this crisis, and many of these laws would make doctors criminals just for treating a patient.

In Arizona, they had a law — which is mentioned by the Vice President — on the books in 1864. That 1864, that’s — 1864, before — during the Civil War. And it went into effect again a week and a half ago.

And just two days after it went into effect, a young 14-year-old girl who’s been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and osteo- — oste- — osteoporosis initially couldn’t get a refill for her prescription, the drug she’d been taking for years to deal with her two diseases, because concerns that that very prescription could be used to terminate a pregnancy in violation of a law in that state.

And that’s exactly what we’re afraid would happen. This 14-year-old girl couldn’t get the medicine she needed for arthritis because of the extreme backward and misguided law.

Now, officials at the University of Idaho said it should stop providing contraception, as was mentioned by the Vice President. In fact, they told the university staff that they could get in trouble just for talking or telling students about birth — where they can get birth control.

Folks, what century are we in? I mean, how — what are we doing? I respect everyone’s view on this — personal decisions they make, but, my Lord, we’re talking about contraception here. It shouldn’t be that controversial. And — but that’s — this is what it looks like when you start to take away the right of privacy.

Watch above via The White House.

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