PHOENIX (AP) — Democrats in the Arizona Legislature are expected to make a final push Wednesday to repeal the state’s long-dormant ban on nearly all abortions, which a court said can be applied.
Fourteen Democrats in the Senate are hoping to get at least two Republican votes to win final approval of the repeal bill, which barely released in the Arizona House last week and is expected to be signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
The near-total ban, which predates Arizona’s statehood, allows abortion only to save the patient’s life — and offers no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. In a ruling last month, the Arizona Supreme Court suggested that doctors could be prosecuted under the 1864 law, which says anyone who assists in an abortion can be sentenced to two to five years in prison.
If the repeal bill is signed, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizona’s current abortion law. Still, there would likely be a period in which almost all abortions would be banned, because the repeal won’t take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, probably in June or July.
Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, who opposes enforcement of the 19th century law, said the first day the state can enforce the law is June 27, though she has asked the state’s highest court to block the law. application for a three-month period ending sometime in late July. The anti-abortion group advocating the ban, Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains that county prosecutors could begin enforcing it as soon as the state Supreme Court ruling becomes final, which it hasn’t yet.
Arizona is one of the few swing states that will decide the next president. Former President Donald Trump, who warned the issue could lead to Republican losses, stopped short of endorsing a national abortion ban but said he was proud to have appointed the Supreme Court justices who allowed states to ban them.
The law has been blocked since the Roe v. Wade of the US Supreme Court in 1973 guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion throughout the country.
However, when Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge that the 1864 ban could be applied again. Still, the law was not actually enforced while the case was working its way through the courts. Mayes, who succeeded Brnovich, urged the state’s high court not to revive the law.
Planned Parenthood officials have vowed to continue providing abortions during the short period they are still legal and said they will bolster networks that help patients travel out of state to places like New Mexico and California to access abortions.
Advocates are collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would allow abortion until the fetus can survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions — to save the parents’ lives or to protect their physical or mental health.
Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, are considering placing one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.
A leaked planning document outlined approaches being considered by House Republicans, such as codifying existing abortion regulations, proposing a 14-week ban that would be “disguised as a 15-week bill” because it would allow abortion up until the beginning of the 15th week. , and a measure that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant.
House Republicans have not yet publicly released any proposed ballot measures.
