Lawmakers in the United States of America (U.S.A) state of Arizona, on Wednesday repealed the permanent reintroduction of a 160-year-old abortion ban in the U.S. state.
The abortion ban first became law when Abraham Lincoln was president and a half-century before women won the right to vote.
A bill to repeal the law passed, 16-14, in the Republican-controlled State Senate with the support of every Democratic senator and two Republicans who broke with anti-abortion conservatives who dominate their party. It now goes to Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, who is expected to sign it on Thursday.
The vote was the culmination of a fevered effort to repeal the law that has made abortion a central focus of Arizona’s politics.
“We are standing in a moment of Arizona history,” said State Senator Anna Hernandez, a Democrat who called the repeal measure up to a vote on Wednesday.
In April, the state Supreme Court allowed the controversial 1864 law to be reinstated.
The statute bans nearly all abortions, including those sought by survivors of rape or incest.
Exceptions only apply if the life of the woman concerned is at risk.
The law also imposes prison terms for doctors and others who aid abortions.
The Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, must still sign the repeal of the 1864 into law, but this was considered a formality.
The 1864 law had been blocked by the 1973 Roe v Wade decisions that granted the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S…
However, the 1864 law was never actually abolished.
The issue has galvanized Democratic voters and energized a campaign to put an abortion-rights ballot measure before Arizona voters in November. On the right, it created a rift between anti-abortion activists who want to keep the law in place and Republican politicians who worry about the political backlash that could be prompted by support of a near-total abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.
The 1864 law had gathered dust on the books for decades. But it exploded into an election-year flashpoint three weeks ago when a 4-2 decision by the State Supreme Court, whose justices are all Republican-appointed, said the ban could now be enforced because of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortion.
Since then, the states have been able to decide independently on rules regarding abortion.
In Arizona, abortions are currently banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
After the repeal is finalized, abortions in Arizona will be governed by a 2022 law that prohibits the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, and makes no exception for rape or incest.
But the repeal will not take effect until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns for the summer, meaning that the 1864 ban could still end up temporarily derailing abortion access in Arizona if a court allows it to go into effect. Arizona’s Democratic attorney general and Planned Parenthood Arizona have gone to court to keep the law from being implemented.
Two Republican state senators, T.J. Shope and Shawnna Bolick, joined with Democrats on Wednesday to force that repeal bill to a vote over furious attempts by far-right Republicans to block it.
Before casting her pivotal vote, Ms. Bolick stood up and began a long, deeply personal speech describing her own three challenging pregnancies, including one that ended with an abortion procedure in her first trimester because the fetus was not viable.
“Would Arizona’s pre-Roe law have allowed me to have this medical procedure even though my life wasn’t in danger?” she asked.
But Ms. Bolick, whose husband is one of the Arizona Supreme Court justices who upheld the 1864 law, also railed against Planned Parenthood and Democratic support for abortion rights. She suggested that her vote to repeal the 1864 ban could be the best shot for conservatives to thwart the abortion ballot measure.
“We should be pushing for the maximum protection for unborn children that can be sustained,” she said. “I side with saving more babies’ lives.”
As she spoke, abortion opponents watching from the public gallery erupted with angry shouts: “Come on!” “This is a disgrace!” “One day you will face a just and holy God!”
The repeal was a significant loss for the anti-abortion movement, which had relied on its outsized strength in the Arizona Legislature, The vote came hours after conservatives celebrated a six-week abortion ban that went into effect in Florida on Wednesday morning. The repeal leaves Republican lawmakers divided about whether to place their own more restrictive abortion measure on the ballot in November to compete with the constitutional amendment supported by abortion-rights groups.
Conservative activists had worked for years to elect and support anti-abortion proponents to the Legislature, enabling them to stand firm against outside pressure. But the narrow loss showed that they are vulnerable even in the places where they have built some of their greatest power, as their national political influence weakens.
Several anti-abortion Republican lawmakers made fiery speeches that framed the vote in spiritual terms. They equated abortions to Naziism and compared the repeal with the Sept. 11 attacks. They read graphic descriptions of later-term abortions. They quoted the Bible and made direct appeals to God from the Senate floor.
Some saw the repeal not simply as a rejection of anti-abortion principles, but an explicit rejection of Christianity.
Two choked up. Senator J.D. Mesnard, who represents a suburban swing district, held up his phone and played a sonogram recording of his daughter’s heartbeat.
“If I vote yes, these will be fewer, these heart beatings,” he said.
Report from Ney York Times/NAN
