The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state can enforce its long-dormant law criminalizing all abortions except when a mother’s life is at stake. The case examined whether the state is still subject to a law that predates Arizona’s statehood. The 1864 law provides no exceptions for rape or incest, but allows abortions if a mother’s life is in danger. The state’s high court ruling reviewed a 2022 decision by the state Court of Appeals that said doctors couldn’t be charged for performing the procedure in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Quick Read
- Arizona Supreme Court Ruling: Enforces the 1864 law criminalizing almost all abortions, except when the mother’s life is at risk, reviving a pre-statehood statute with no exceptions for rape or incest.
- Historical Context: The 1864 law dates back to before Arizona became a state and was initially blocked following the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. It was reactivated after Roe was overturned in June 2022.
- Recent Legal Developments: The state Court of Appeals in 2022 ruled doctors couldn’t be prosecuted for performing abortions within the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, but this was challenged, leading to the current Supreme Court decision.
- Political Implications: The ruling has significant repercussions in Arizona, a crucial battleground state, potentially affecting the presidential and Senate races. Democratic officials have criticized the decision, emphasizing its impact on women’s rights.
- Public and Political Response: Attorney General Kris Mayes and Governor Katie Hobbs, both Democrats, expressed strong opposition to the ruling. Mayes described it as a “stain” on Arizona’s history, and Hobbs criticized the ongoing assault on basic rights by Republicans.
- National Context: Arizona joins 14 states with strict abortion bans post-Roe. The issue of abortion rights is becoming increasingly central in U.S. politics, especially in battleground states.
- Planned Parenthood’s Stance: Plans to continue providing abortions up to 15 weeks as currently allowed but will need to adjust services following the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Associated Press has the story:
Arizona court enforces an 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions
Newslooks- PHOENIX (AP) —
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state can enforce its long-dormant law criminalizing all abortions except when a mother’s life is at stake. The case examined whether the state is still subject to a law that predates Arizona’s statehood. The 1864 law provides no exceptions for rape or incest, but allows abortions if a mother’s life is in danger. The state’s high court ruling reviewed a 2022 decision by the state Court of Appeals that said doctors couldn’t be charged for performing the procedure in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.
An older court decision blocked enforcing the 1864 law shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to an abortion. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, then state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge in Tucson to lift the block on enforcing the 1864 law. Brnovich’s Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, had urged the state’s high court to side with the Court of Appeals and hold the 1864 law in abeyance. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision ending a nationwide right to abortion, most Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or restrictions and most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect abortion access.
Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. Two states ban the procedure once cardiac activity can be detected, which is about six weeks into pregnancy and often before women realize they’re pregnant.
Nearly every ban has been challenged with a lawsuit. Courts have blocked enforcing some restrictions, including bans throughout pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming.
A proposal pending before the Arizona Legislature that would repeal the 1864 law hasn’t received a committee hearing this year. “Today’s decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasn’t a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn’t even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state,” Mayes said Tuesday.
The justices said the state can start enforcing the law in 14 days.
Arizona court ruling makes nearly all abortions illegal in a presidential battleground state
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona Supreme Court decision on Tuesday that will end virtually all abortions in the state puts the issue front and center in a battleground state that will play a crucial role in deciding the next president and the Senate majority.
Democrats immediately pounced on the ruling, blaming former President Donald Trump for the loss of abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court, reshaped by his three appointments, ended the national right to abortion and allowed laws like Arizona’s, which was first passed in 1864.
“Today’s decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasn’t a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn’t even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state,” Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement. She pledged that prosecutors in her office would not enforce it.
Gov. Katie Hobbs, also a Democrat, said the ruling “only serves to create more chaos for women and doctors in our state,” pointing blame at Republicans for a “never-ending assault on our basic rights.”
I signed the 15-week law as governor because it is thoughtful policy, and an approach to this very sensitive issue that Arizonans can actually agree on,” he said. President Joe Biden called the 1864 Arizona law cruel.
“Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest,” he said in a statement. “Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose. We will continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
The decision will give Arizona the strictest abortion laws of the six top-tier battlegrounds that are likely to decide the next president. Georgia outlaws abortions about after six weeks, while Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania all allow abortions up to 20 weeks or later.
The ruling comes a day after Trump said abortion limits should be left to the states and declined to endorse a national ban after months of mixed messages and speculation.
Voters have consistently backed looser abortion laws when the question is put directly too them, including in conservative states such as Kansas and Kentucky. The issue has is credited with helping Democrats exceed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections.
In Arizona, the political fallout of Tuesday’s ruling could be extensive. President Joe Biden has put abortion rights at the center of his campaign, as has Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego.
It also will intensify efforts by abortion rights advocates to put a ballot measure in front of voters that would restore the right to an abortion. And it will likely give a boost to Democrats seeking to win the legislative majority, giving them power over election laws in a battleground state.
According to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of the electorate, 61% of Arizona voters in the 2022 midterm elections said abortion should be legal in most or all cases. Just 6% said it should be illegal in all cases.
Two-thirds of midterm voters in Arizona said the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade was an important factor to their vote for that election.
Officials at Planned Parenthood said they would continue to provide abortions up to 15 weeks, as allowed by the Arizona courts, but will have to wind them down in the coming months.
The old law was first enacted among a set of laws known as the “Howell Code” adopted by the 1st Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1864, decades before Arizona became a state in 1912. Legislative researchers said it remained in the penal code in 1901 and was readopted in subsequent rewrites, including in the 1970s. The law allows doctors or others to be prosecuted for performing an abortion at any time unless the mother’s life is in danger. It does not include exceptions for rape or incest.
