Arizona has gone back 160 years when it comes to reproductive rights. The Supreme Court issued a ruling this Tuesday that revives a law from 1864, a year before the end of the civil war, which prohibits abortion in all cases except when the life of the pregnant person is in danger and punishes it with prison sentences. from two to five years. The decision annuls the rule in force until now, which protected the right to abortion before 15 weeks of gestation.
The highest state court, which made the decision by a majority of four to two judges, considers that the controversial law “is applicable again” after the repeal in 2022 of federal abortion protections by the federal Supreme Court, since It was never repealed in its entirety. However, in the same ruling, it pauses its decision for 14 days and leaves it in the hands of a lower court pending litigation over its constitutionality.
If it is finally implemented, Arizona will be added to the list of 16 states that have already implemented almost total bans since the repeal of Roe V Wade by the Supreme Court. And it will force women who wish to have an abortion to do so clandestinely or to travel to other neighboring states where it is still legal, such as California, New Mexico or Colorado.
The law in question, passed 48 years before Arizona officially became a U.S. state, punishes anyone who performs an abortion with prison terms of two to five years, which could force abortion facilities to close. abortion clinics in case it is applied again. “Doctors are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal,” the judges wrote in their ruling, in which they do not accept exceptions in cases of incest or rape.
The high court’s controversial ruling comes at a time of great polarization and debate in Arizona regarding this issue. Reproductive rights groups are gathering signatures to push for a referendum in November to constitutionally protect abortion and, according to the Arizona Republic, they have already obtained more than necessary.
The attorney general of the southern state, Democrat Kris Mayes, has described the law as “inconceivable and an affront to freedom.” In a statement after the ruling, she said that “the decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona was not a state, the Civil War raged and women could not even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state”. And she has promised that, as long as she is attorney general, she will not engage in prosecutions under the ban: “no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law.”
The decision comes one day after the statements of the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, in which he abandoned his ambiguity on abortion and said that it should continue to be in the hands of the states, rejecting the national ban that some sectors of his party defend. Arizona is considered one of the seven key states ahead of the November presidential elections, and abortion remains one of the main battle fronts for both Democrats and Republicans.
The midterm elections, in October 2022, took their toll on Republican candidates in favor of banning abortion throughout the country, and gave victory in Arizona to Attorney General Meyers and Governor Katie Hobbs, both of the Democratic Party.
