Kari Lake gets flack from both sides on abortion as she navigates Arizona law

TUCSON, Ariz. — Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake took criticism from both flanks of the abortion debate during a visit to the University of Arizona Thursday evening, as she and other candidates navigate the fallout from this week’s state Supreme Court decision upholding the state’s Civil War-era abortion ban.

Lake’s flip-flop on the law — which she called a “great law” in 2022 but now opposes and is pushing fellow Republicans to repeal — illustrates the tricky political position she and other Republicans find themselves in on abortion policy ahead of the 2024 election.

Former President Donald Trump released a video on abortion policy last week, hoping to deflect criticism over his Supreme Court appointees’ role in the end of Roe v. Wade and allay fears about a national ban by describing it as a states’ rights issue. But that still leaves Republicans playing defense on unpopular state-level abortion bans now active because of that 2022 Supreme Court ruling — including Lake, who describes herself as “Trump in heels” and faced criticism at her Thursday campaign stop.

During the event, organized by the University of Arizona’s College Republicans, Lake opened up her town hall to questions from the crowd and was quickly confronted on abortion.

“The Republican Party has taken such a staunch stance on no abortion,” a student said before referencing the state’s Supreme Court’s Tuesday ruling. “Why such drastic change in the way you talk about it?” asked the student, prompting snaps and claps from a sub-section of the crowd, some of whom were wearing t-shirts that read “college Democrats.”

The student’s confrontational question mirrored the tack Lake’s probable Democratic challenger, Rep. Ruben Gallego, has been taking