Arizona secretary of state and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs on Sunday failed to name a single restriction on abortion she would support if she were elected governor of the state.
Speaking to CNN host Dana Bash, Hobbs dodged the question about whether she would agree to limits on late-term abortions multiple times.
“The fact is right now we are under one extreme 15-week ban that limits healthcare options for women who need them. There’s a potential for a complete ban right now,” Hobbs said. She redirected the conversation to Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake’s pro-life views. “Under my opponent’s administration, she would support a full ban. She has called this a great law. She doesn’t support any exceptions for rape or incest,” Hobbs added.
“What do you support?,” Bash repeated.
While abortion in the final trimester of pregnancy is not common, Hobbs suggested that it still needs to be permitted.
“When you’re talking about late-term abortion, that is extremely incredibly rare. If that conversation is happening it’s because there is something that has gone incredibly wrong in the pregnancy. And politicians do not belong in that decision,” she said.
“But what do you support? What should the limits be,” the CNN anchor urged. Refusing to articulate an abortion cutoff at any fetal development benchmark, Hobbs replied: “The decision about abortion should be between a patient and their doctor.”
“So there should no limits in the law? It should only be decided in the medical office,” Bash asked. “Government making these kinds of mandates interferes with the care doctors need to provide to their decisions,” Hobbs said.
The host requested a final confirmation of Hobbs’ policy plans for abortion. “Just to be clear, if you become governor, you will push for a law that has absolutely no limits in any point of the pregnancy on abortion? That’s your position and what you’d want to become the law of the land in Arizona?”
“We have very limited options. We need to get politicians out of the way and let doctors provide the care they are trained to provide. Politicians don’t belong in those decisions,” the Democrat reiterated.
Both Lake and Hobbs have attempted to paint each other as the extremist on abortion, with the former backing widespread state protections for the unborn baby in the womb and the latter backing, evidently, none.
At an October 2 campaign event at the Republican National Committee’s Hispanic Community Center in Phoenix, Lake was asked a question by a reporter: “Abortion is effectively banned in the state right now. Tell me, is that something that you support?” On October 7, an Arizona appellate court blocked enforcement of the state’s 1901 abortion law, which bans all abortions, except in cases in which the mother’s life is in jeopardy. That decision came after a lower court in September ruled that the law could stand after a long-standing injunction prevented it from taking effect for decades.
“I support saving as many lives as possible, and what I really want to know—and I’ve been waiting, I tune into you guys all the time—I want to know where Katie Hobbs stands, but I never hear you guys ask her that. I’m pro life,” Lake said. “My plan would be that every woman who walks into an abortion clinic know that there are options out there, [that] they don’t have to choose that. There’s families who would love to adopt a baby. And right now, the way it’s been going, they go in and they only have one option.”