Arizona senate passes bill to repeal 1864 abortion ban; Harris says Trump’s insistence he doesn’t back national ban is ‘gaslighting’ – live

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A showdown is set to take place next week between Republican House speaker Mike Johnson and far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is leading a charge to remove Johnson as the chamber’s leader over his collaboration with Democrats. But, unlike the last time something like this happened, Democratic leaders say they will oppose Greene’s motion to vacate, and there are already signs that rank-and-file lawmakers will follow along. As for Greene, she only has two other Republicans on board with her ouster attempt – not exactly resounding numbers. We’ll see if anything changes in the days to come. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris traveled to Florida to tell voters in a state Joe Biden is hoping to win in November that Donald Trump is to blame for the strict abortion ban that went into effect today. And in swing state Arizona, the state senate finally approved a repeal of its stringent law against abortion that dates back to the 19th century. Democratic governor Katie Hobbs is expected to sign the bill.

Here’s what else went on today:

Florida Democrats have had a tough go of it in recent years, and but hope a measure to expand abortion access that will be on the ballot in November will turn their fortunes around.

Johnson issued a brief response to Greene’s push to remove him as speaker, warning that it was “wrong for the country”.

The aftershocks from a violent night on college campuses continue to reverberate, with the University of California, Los Angeles, canceling classes following an attack by counter-protesters on a pro-Palestinian encampment. Follow our live blog for more.

Louisiana might not get another majority-Black congressional district after all, further complicating Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House majority in November.

Biden ordered the cancellation of billions of dollars in debt accrued by students who attended a private college system accused of fraud.

The Associated Press notes that voting in the senate on the bill to repeal Arizona’s strict abortion restrictions is ongoing, but the legislation has the votes to pass, with the requisite two Republicans supporting it alongside 14 Democrats.

However, Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights groups, warns that the fight to keep the procedure available is far from over:

Here’s more on the abortion battle in the south-west swing state that could prove crucial to Joe Biden’s or Donald Trump’s chances of winning the White House:

Arizona senate passes bill to repeal 19th century-era abortion ban

Arizona’s state senate has passed legislation to repeal a ban on almost all abortions in the state that dates back to 1864, the Associated Press reports.

The measure, which the house approved last week, now goes to Democratic governor Katie Hobbs, who said she will sign it.

Despite their struggles in Florida in recent years, Democrats hope the presence on the November ballot of a measure to broaden access to abortion could sway voters they will need to win the state for Joe Biden. Last month, the Guardian’s Richard Luscombe took a close look at their plans:

Democrats in Florida are teaming up with operatives from Joe Biden’s re-election campaign in an all-out assault on Republicans’ extremist positions on abortion, believing it will bring victory in presidential and US Senate races in November.

They fired an opening salvo on Tuesday, tearing into Donald Trump’s “boasting” about overturning federal abortion protections a day earlier, and assailing the incumbent Republican senator Rick Scott for supporting Florida’s six-week ban that takes effect next month.

Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor and former candidate for the party’s presidential nomination who signed the ban into law, also found himself under fire.

“The word is accountability,” Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic party, told an online launch meeting attended by Jasmine Burney-Clark, state director of the Biden-Harris campaign, and Democratic state representative Anna Eskamani, a former regional senior director of Planned Parenthood.

“We are here because Donald Trump bragged about overturning Roe v Wade. Then we got here in Florida because we had an individual who wanted to run for president and wanted to take our state into extremism, the Republican legislature who voted for it, and Rick Scott … who said on the national stage he will push for a national abortion ban.

“It’s incumbent on all of us, the party, the candidates, the campaigns, to make sure that we are making that very distinct link.”

Here’s the moment when Kamala Harris warned Florida voters against believing Donald Trump’s insistence that he would not support federal limits on abortion:

As she closed out her speech, Harris compared and contrasted a second Donald Trump term with four more years of Joe Biden, and repeated the president’s promise to sign legislation restoring the protections in Roe v Wade, should Congress approve it.

“The great Maya Angelou once said, ‘When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.’ And Donald Trump has told us who he is. So here’s what a second Trump term looks like: more bans, more suffering, less freedom,” Harris said.

“But we are not going to let that happen because you see, we trust women. We trust women to know what is in their own best interest. And women trust all of us to fight to protect their most fundamental freedom.”

No Democratic president has won Florida’s electoral votes since Barack Obama in 2012, and at the state level, the GOP controls the governor’s mansion and the legislature. The state’s Democrats have generally struggled in recent years, though there have been some signs of a comeback.

“This November, up and down the ballot, reproductive freedom is on the ballot. And you, the leaders, you the people, have the power to protect it with your vote. Donald Trump may think he can take Florida for granted. It is your power that will send Joe Biden and me back to the White House,” Harris said.

“And when Congress passes the law that restores the reproductive freedoms of Roe, our president, Joe Biden, will sign it.”

'Enough with the gaslighting': Harris responds to Trump's insistence that he does not back national abortion ban

Donald Trump may say that he does not plan to push for a national abortion ban, but Kamala Harris told voters in Florida that they should not believe him.

“As much harm as he has already caused, a second Trump term would be even worse,” the vice-president said.

“Donald Trump’s friends in the United States Congress are trying to pass a national ban and, understand, a national ban would outlaw abortion in every single state, even in states like New York and California. And now Trump wants us to believe he will not sign a national ban. Well, I say enough with the gaslighting.”

Here’s more on just what Trump has said about a national ban:

Donald Trump recently said abortion policy should be left to the states, and declined to endorse a national ban on the procedure that some Republicans have called for.

Harris took him to task: “Trump says he wants to leave abortion up to the states, he says, up to the states. All right. So here’s how that works out. Today, one in three women of reproductive age live in a state with a Trump abortion ban – many with no exception for rape or incest.”

She then explained why she cared so much about this issue, relating a story from when she was growing up:

As many of you know, I started my career as a prosecutor specializing in crimes against women and children. What many of you may not know is why? So, when I was in high school I learned that my best friend was being molested by her stepfather. And I said to her, well, you’ve got to come and live with us. I call my mother. And my mother said of course she does. And so she did.

So, the idea that someone who survives a crime of violence to their body of violation of their body would not have the authority to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That’s immoral. That’s immoral.

And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do.

Harris assails 'Trump abortion ban' in Florida

Harris then pivoted to the meat of her argument to Florida voters: that Donald Trump was to blame for the abortion ban that just went into effect in the state, as well as others like it nationwide.

“Across our nation, we witnessed a full on assault, state by state, on reproductive freedom, and understand who is to blame: former president Donald Trump did this,” Harris said.

“Donald Trump hand-picked three members of the United States supreme court because he intended for them to overturn Roe, and as he intended, they did.”

Harris harkened back to her grilling, as a senator on the judiciary committee, of two of Trump’s supreme court nominees, saying it was clear after their confirmation that the days of nationwide abortion access were numbered:

And it happened just as Donald Trump intended. Now, present day because of Donald Trump, more than 20 states have abortion bans, more than 20 Trump abortion bans. And today, this very day at the stroke of midnight, another Trump abortion ban went into effect here in Florida. As of this morning, four million women in this state woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night. This is the new reality under a Trump abortion ban.

Harris calls push for reproductive rights 'a fight for freedom' in Florida speech

Kamala Harris has taken the stage in Jacksonville, Florida, where she likened abortion access to a “fundamental freedom”.

“This is a fight for freedom, the fundamental freedom to make decisions about one’s own body and not have their government tell them what they’re supposed to do,” the vice-president said.

“As we know, almost two years ago, the highest court in our land, the court of Thurgood and RBG, took a constitutional right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America. And now, in states across our nation, extremists have proposed and passed laws that criminalize doctors, punish women – laws that threatened doctors and nurses with prison time, even for life, simply for providing reproductive care.”

Florida’s six-week abortion ban doesn’t just mark the end of most patients’ access to the procedure in the state, but also in the rest of the south-eastern United States. The Guardian’s Carter Sherman reported from a clinic trying to squeeze in appointments before it went into effect about how reproductive health access in Florida was about to change:

A six-week abortion ban went into effect on Wednesday in Florida, cutting off access to the procedure before many people know they are pregnant and leveling the south-eastern United States’ last stronghold for abortion rights.

The ban went into force weeks after Florida’s state supreme court issued a decision clearing the way for it to take effect. Strict bans now blanket all of the American deep south, increasing the strain on the country’s remaining clinics. The closest clinic for most Floridians past six weeks of pregnancy is now several states away in North Carolina, which outlaws abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Last year, Florida abortion providers performed more than 84,000 abortions, state data found – including more than 9,000 for out-of-state patients, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion restrictions. Roughly 60 % of Florida abortions occur after six weeks of pregnancy.

On Tuesday, the last day before the ban took effect, an abortion clinic in Gainesville, Florida, was trying to squeeze in as many patients as possible. The clinic had added hours throughout April, but the rush was compounded by the fact that, in addition to the impending ban, Florida requires people to have an in-person consultation at an abortion clinic at least 24 hours before they get the procedure or take abortion pills. A patient could have arrived on Tuesday exactly six weeks into her pregnancy, but have been too late to get an abortion given that the ban came into effect on Wednesday.

Georgia’s Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is doubling down on her attempts to oust House speaker Mike Johnson.

In an address today, Greene said:

We have to have a Republican majority in January and under Mike Johnson’s leadership, we’re not going to have one …

Hakeem Jeffries has endorsed Mike Johnson because he knows Mike Johnson’s leadership is going to hand the House majority to Democrats in January. It will make our voters not vote for him …

Joe Biden has announced the approval of $6.1bn in student debt cancellation for 317,000 borrowers who attended the Art Institutes, a private college system that was closed last year amid fraud claims.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Biden said:

This institution falsified data, knowingly misled students, and cheated borrowers into taking on mountains of debt without leading to promising career prospects at the end of their studies …

While my predecessor looked the other way when colleges defrauded students and borrowers, I promised to take this on directly to provide borrowers with the relief they need and deserve … And in total, we have approved debt cancellation for nearly 4.6 million Americans through various actions.

Today’s announcement builds on all we’ve done to fix broken student loan programs and bring higher education more in reach.

Arizona Democrats are expected to make a final push to repeal the state’s near-total abortion ban, which dates back to 1864.

The Guardian and agencies report:

Fourteen Democrats in the state senate are hoping to pick up at least two Republican votes to win final approval for a bill repealing the ban, which narrowly cleared the Arizona house last week and is expected to be signed by the Democratic governor.

The near-total ban, which predates Arizona’s statehood, permits abortions only to save the patient’s life – and provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. The law had been on the books since 1864, but had been blocked since the US supreme court’s 1973 Roe v Wade decision guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.

In a ruling last month, however, the Arizona supreme court suggested that following the US supreme court’s decision last year to overturn Roe v Wade, doctors could be prosecuted under the civil war-era law. Under the law, anyone who assists in an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison.

Read the full story here:

The day so far

A showdown is set to take place next week between Republican House speaker Mike Johnson and far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is leading a charge to remove him as the chamber’s leader over his collaboration with Democrats. But, unlike the last time something like this happened, Democratic leaders say they will oppose Greene’s motion to vacate, and there are already signs that rank-and-file lawmakers will follow along. As for Greene, she only has two others on board with her ouster attempt – not exactly resounding numbers. We’ll see if anything changes in the days to come. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is set to speak at 2.45pm in Jacksonville, Florida, and blame Donald Trump for the state’s strict abortion ban, which went into effect today. We plan to cover that live.

Here’s what else has happened today so far:

Johnson issued a brief response to Greene’s push to remove him as speaker, warning that it was “wrong for the country”.

The aftershocks from a violent night on college campuses continue to reverberate, with the University of California, Los Angeles, canceling classes following an attack by counter-protesters on a pro-Palestinian encampment. Follow our live blog for more.

Louisiana might not get another majority-Black congressional district after all, further complicating Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House majority in November.

'There is one person responsible for this nightmare: Donald Trump,' Biden says as Florida abortion ban takes effect

Earlier this morning, Joe Biden hammered Donald Trump as Florida’s strict abortion ban went into effect, saying the former president “ripped away the rights and freedom of women in America”.

“There is one person responsible for this nightmare: Donald Trump. Trump brags about overturning Roe v Wade, making extreme bans like Florida’s possible, saying his plan is working ‘brilliantly’. He thinks it’s brilliant that more than 4 million women in Florida, and more than one in three women in America, can’t get access to the care they need,” the president said in a statement released through his re-election campaign.

“Trump is worried the voters will hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he created. He’s right. Trump ripped away the rights and freedom of women in America. This November, voters are going to teach him a valuable lesson: don’t mess with the women of America.”