By ANITA SNOW and MORGAN LEE (Associated Press)
PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has put an end to a Civil War-era prohibition on most abortions by signing a repeal bill Thursday. abortions Hobbs says the move is
just the beginning of a fight to protect reproductive health care in Arizona. But the repeal may not take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, in June or July. Abortion rights advocates hope a court will step in to prevent that outcome. The effort to repeal the long-dormant law, which bans all abortions except those done to save a patient’s life,
received final legislative approval Wednesday in a 16-14 vote of the Senate, as two GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats. Hobbs denounced “a ban that was passed by 27 men before Arizona was even a state, at a time when America was at war over the right to own slaves, a time before women could even vote.”
“This ban needs to be repealed, I said it in 2022 when Roe was overturned, and I said it again and again as governor,” Hobbs said.
The vote extended for hours as senators described their motivations in personal, emotional and even biblical terms — including graphic descriptions of abortion procedures and amplified audio recordings of a fetal heartbeat, along with warnings against the dangers of “legislating religious beliefs.”
At the same time Wednesday, supporters of a South Dakota abortion rights initiative submitted far
more signatures than required to make the ballot this fall, while in Florida a ban took effect against most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people even know they are pregnant. Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, an opponent of the near-total abortion ban, has said the earliest the dormant abortion-ban law could be enforced is June 27, though she has asked the state’s highest court to block enforcement until sometime in late July. But the anti-abortion group defending the ban, Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains county prosecutors can begin enforcing it once the Supreme Court’s decision becomes final, which hasn’t yet occurred.
The near-total ban provides no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. In a ruling last month, the Arizona Supreme Court suggested
doctors could be prosecuted under the law first approved in 1864, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for anyone who assists in an abortion. A repeal means that a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizona’s prevailing abortion law.
A crowd of lawmakers — mostly women — joined the governor at the signing ceremony. Some were gripped by emotion as they cheered the repeal and said more is needed to protect rights to reproductive health care.
Former Democratic state Rep. Athena Salman celebrated approval of the repeal she initially proposed in 2019.
Salman, who resigned in January to lead an abortion rights group, said she can’t stop thinking about her daughters. “Future generations will not have to live under the restrictions and the interference that we have had to experience,” she said.
Arizona Representative Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, a member of the Democratic party who has played a significant role in the effort to overturn the territorial ban on abortion, mentioned that she spent her early years living on the Navajo Nation where her parents worked as teachers and witnessed firsthand people being denied their reproductive rights.
She also witnessed her sister-in-law struggling with two challenging pregnancies that ended in stillbirths.
“If this law goes into effect, my 17-year-old daughter would have fewer reproductive freedoms than her great-grandmother in 1940 in Texas, who had to have an abortion,” Stahl Hamilton said. “We have people who need reproductive care now.”
President Joe Biden’s campaign team believes that the anger over the fall of Roe v. Wade gives them a political advantage in battleground states like Arizona, while the issue has caused division among Republican leaders.
Supporters of the abortion ban in the Senate on Wednesday heckled and interrupted state Republican Senator Shawnna Bolick as she explained her vote in favor of repeal, aligning with Democrats. Bolick is married to state Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, who voted in April to allow a 1864 law on abortion to be enforced again. He faces a retention election in November.
The 19th century law had been blocked since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.
After the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, convinced a state judge that the 1864 ban
could be enforced . However, the law hasn’t actually been enforced while the case was being resolved through the courts.Planned Parenthood Arizona filed a motion on Wednesday afternoon asking the state Supreme Court to prevent a pause in abortion services until the Legislature’s repeal takes effect.
Advocates are gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would allow abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions — to save the parent’s life, or to protect her physical or mental health.
In response, Republican lawmakers are considering presenting one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.
Dr. Ronald Yunis, a Phoenix-based obstetrician-gynecologist who also provides abortions, referred to the repeal as a positive development for patients who might otherwise leave Arizona for medical care.
“This is good for ensuring that women won’t have to travel to other states just to get the health care they need,” Yunis said. “I was not too concerned because I have a lot of confidence in our governor and attorney general. I’m certain they will continue finding ways to protect women.”
By ANITA SNOW and MORGAN LEE (Associated Press) PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has consigned a Civil War-era ban on most abortions to the past by signing a repeal bill Thursday. Hobbs says the repeal, signed Thursday, marks just the beginning of a fight to protect reproductive health care in Arizona. But […]
