KTAR News: Arizona gubernatorial candidate Hobbs vows to work on rolling back abortion restrictions

By Torrence Dunham

PHOENIX — Democratic Arizona gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs said Tuesday that, if elected to the office, she would work on rolling back the restrictive abortion measures recently enacted by Gov. Doug Ducey and the state legislature.

“The restrictions on abortion that are already in law in Arizona are extreme and out of touch,” Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad Show.

“As governor, I’m going to do everything I can to roll back the extreme restrictions that we have in law here in Arizona.”

Ducey last month signed a bill making it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion after 15 weeks.

While the bill prohibits the prosecution of a woman for having an abortion, and there is also an exception if the mother is at risk of death or serious permanent injury, there is no exception for instances of rape or incest.

The bill also said it would not overrule a state law in place for more than 100 years that would ban abortion outright if the Supreme Court overrules Roe v. Wade, which may happen after a leaked draft opinion suggested the nation’s highest court will overturn the case that legalized the procedure nationwide.

“These are extreme and out of touch policies,” Hobbs said. “They will not stop women from seeking abortions, and women who don’t have access to travel to California and get it done will go to unsafe situations.”

Hobbs said the decision on whether or not to have children should be between a woman and her doctor.

“The government belongs out of it,” Hobbs said. ” As a social worker, I’ve seen firsthand the consequences of dangerous or unplanned pregnancy, the vicious cycle that poverty and lack of access to reproductive healthcare can cause.”

She added restrictive abortion measures are not in line with what mainstream Americans or Arizonans want.

“As governor, my veto pen is going to be a really important tool to stopping further erosion of these rights,” Hobbs said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.