In Arizona, an 1864 law banning almost all forms of abortion was deemed applicable by the Supreme Court in early April, but has now been annulled by the Senate. A decision taken in a tense context caused by the presidential election in November.
Finally a little common sense? On Wednesday, May 1, the Arizona Senate voted to repeal a law dating from 1864 which prohibited all forms of abortion, which the Supreme Court of this state in the American South West had deemed “applicable” At the beginning of April. A crucial decision for this pivotal state (or “swing state”) in this year’s presidential election. Since the cancellation of the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, each of the 50 states of the United States can legislate on this subject, therefore leaving free scope for the Arizona Supreme Court to judge this 1864 law applicable in 2024.
This law, existing well before the creation of the State of Arizona itself (which dates from 1912), prohibits abortion in all cases unless necessary to save the life of the mother – understand: l Abortion is not permitted even in cases of rape or incest. Doctors who help women have abortions can, under this law, be fined and sentenced to two to five years in prison.
In pronouncing the decision to Roe v. Wade In 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States made the right to abortion a constitutional right, and this decision therefore took precedence over any state law prohibiting this practice, such as that of Arizona. But in 2022, this same Supreme Court dismantled this decision, and therefore gave each state the possibility of doing as it sees fit. This is how Arizona, that same year, passed a law prohibiting abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy.
But in a turnaround, on April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that this 1864 law, which had been gathering dust for decades, since it was no longer in force, would be “now applicable”because never formally repealed. “Doctors are now warned that all abortions, except those necessary to save the life of the mother, are illegal,” wrote the court, which emphasized that the State of Arizona had never created a right to abortion.
This decision caused great controversy in the country, being condemned by Joe Biden, but also moderately criticized by Donald Trump, who considered that the decision to apply this law would “too far”. The governor of Arizona, Katie Hobbs, deplored on April 9 that this decision “to reimpose a law dating from a time when Arizona was not a state, when the Civil War was raging and when women could not even vote, will go down in history as a stain on our state.”
It now remains for Arizona Governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs, to promulgate the upper house’s decision. By doing this, the law introduced in 2022 – prohibiting abortion after fifteen weeks of pregnancy – will become applicable again, but only 90 days after the end of the parliamentary session, that is to say on August 8.
Katie Hobbs said to herself “happy” in a statement of this vote in the Arizona Senate, saying “look forward to enacting this repeal.”
This decision is not without consequences for the state of Arizona, which is a pivot in the presidential election of November 2024. A popular initiative announced in April that it had collected the necessary signatures to obtain a referendum in order to register abortion in the Arizona Constitution. This vote should take place at the same time as the November election, as will for example be the case in Florida, another decisive state.
However, the debate on abortion is one of the key subjects of this election. Outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden is making the defense of women’s rights a major focus of his campaign for a second term, facing his Republican opponent Donald Trump. The latter prides himself on having, through his appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, resulted in the cancellation of federal protection for abortion in June 2022, but insists on the electoral risks of an overly conservative position on the question.
As for Arizona, Democrats had already seized the issue for the 2022 local elections, winning the elections for governor (Katie Hobbs) and attorney general (Kriz Mayes). They both strongly criticized the decision to reintroduce the 1864 law.
Since the repeal of a constitutional right to abortion, around twenty states have banned or very severely limited access to abortion.
