The Arizona State Senate has passed the repeal of a 19th century law that banned abortion in nearly all circumstances. The repeal vote passed 16-14, with two Republicans breaking ranks with their party to eliminate the near-total ban enacted in 1864, which predates Arizona's statehood.
The bill, which passed the Arizona House last week, is expected to be signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.
"I’m glad to see the Senate answered my call and voted to repeal the 1864 total abortion ban. While this is essential to protecting women’s health, it is just the beginning," Hobbs said on social media Wednesday. "I will never stop fighting for women’s reproductive freedoms."
Should the bill be signed as expected, a 2022 law banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would once again become the law of the land 90 days after the end of the legislative session. The session traditonally ends in late spring or early summer —between late May and July — depending on legislative business.
However, as Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., noted in a social media post, there is still a period in which the total ban may take effect.
"Today, the Arizona legislature repealed the backwards 1864 abortion ban. This is good news, but still leaves a period in which the ban may take effect. The only way to prevent this chaos is to restore reproductive rights so that women can make these decisions for themselves," Kelly said.
On April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the 1864 ban would be the law of the land — however, a series of legal requests by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has pushed the effective date of the ruling back, first to June, and potentially until September. The potentially staggered windows of effectiveness could create a period of weeks to months in which Arizonans would be unable to get an abortion.
The 1864 law, passed during the first session of Arizona's Territorial Legislature, banned abortion procedures in nearly all circumstances, including pregnancies by rape or incest. The only exception to the law is saving the life of the patient. It was revised and adopted in 1901, and essentially went untouched until the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade ensured federal protections for abortion patients and providers. From there, a court injunction in a separate case essentially voided the law, though it was never taken off the books, leading to the current controversy.
Wednesday's vote lingered for hours as senators debated and chided one another. State Senators Anthony Kern — one of the 11 fake electors, indicted by Mayes, who sought to throw out the 2020 election to benefit former President Donald Trump — and Jake Hoffman, both Republicans, repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought to procedurally delay and derail the vote. Both also attempted to interrupt fellow Republican Sen. Shawnna Bolick, who shared the stories of her own pregnancies to demonstrate that "not all pregnancies are the same." She was one of two Republican votes in favor of the repeal — though, in this case, her choice was made to appear strategic, weighted against an initiative expected for the November ballot.
"As a pro-lifer myself, we should be pushing for the maximum protection for unborn children that can be sustained over time," Bolick said. "This November, Planned Parenthood's Arizona Abortion Access Act goes way too far out of step with Arizona and our values...very little legislation written and signed into law is ever perfect. Until we have a better choice in this matter I side with saving more babies lives. I want to protect our state constitution from unlimited abortions."
The Arizona Abortion Access Act initiative has not yet won a spot on Arizona's November ballot, and is still in the signature collection phase. It would amend the Arizona State Constitution to enshrine a "fundamental right to abortion."
Kern, in a lengthy explanation of his "no" vote, compared Bolick's vote to "Nazi Germany, where the Nazis said 'Jews, you have something wrong with you, you go to the death chamber. You Jews can live and work the fields,'" invoked God 11 times while quoting scripture, insisted that Democrats hate America, and concluded by stating that "I don't care if I win or lose, I know in the end, I win."
Sen. Eva Burch, the chamber's Democratic Whip, recently won national notice for detailing her history of miscarriages and an abortion she underwent after discovering her fetus was not viable, all to urge her colleauges to understand how their legislation might impact their constituents. But on Wednesday, she was succinct in her response to her anti-abortion colleagues.
"We have to stop allowing peopel to suggest that there are abortion providers in this state or even this country who provide elective abortions, on-demand, for full-term pregnancy. This is false," Burch said. "I appreciate the passionate religious convictions of members who have risen to announce their faith. I respect it. My beliefs are different from yours. I'm not afraid of the abortions that I had, I do not fear for my soul. They were the right decision for me, and I don't have to follow your religion in this country.
"The trend towards legislating religious beliefs in this state is dangerous and it should make everybody neverous, regardless of their faith," she added.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who spoke in Florida on Wednesday — the same day the state's six-week abortion ban took effect — applauded Arizona's legislature for the vote...and then reaffirmed the Biden-Harris campaign's tact that former President Donald Trump is responsible for the state of reproductive options across the country.
“Donald Trump is the architect of this health care crisis in Arizona and across the country — he’s said so himself. He boasts that he is ‘proudly the person responsible’ for overturning Roe. He said in an interview published just this week that states should be allowed to monitor women’s bodies and to ‘punish’ women. And he’s ready to go even further by banning abortion nationwide — with or without the help of Congress," Harris said in a statement.
“We cannot allow these attacks on reproductive freedom to stand. Joe Biden and I will never stop fighting for reproductive freedom. And together, we will defeat Donald Trump and his extreme agenda this November.”