Arizonans gather to rally for reproductive rights at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. The group spoke about the critical need for abortion access and denounced a near-total ban from 1864 being debated across the street in the Arizona Supreme Court. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror
Arizonans gather to rally for reproductive rights at the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. The group spoke about the critical need for abortion access and denounced a near-total ban from 1864 being debated across the street in the Arizona Supreme Court. Photo by Gloria Rebecca Gomez | Arizona Mirror
The draconian decision of Arizona's Supreme Court, to enforce an abortion ban from 1864, has served to galvanize Democrats and split Republicans—with some criticizing it and others cheering it on.
Republished with permission from Arizona Mirror, by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday to make abortion almost completely illegal by reinstating a 160-year-old ban on the procedure.
Elected officials and politicians across the state had wide-ranging reactions to the ruling.
Democrats statewide came out strongly against the ruling, vowing to fight for increased access and a repeal to the law, chief among them Gov. Katie Hobbs.
“My message to Arizonans is this: I will not rest, and I will not stop fighting until we have fully secured the right to reproductive healthcare in our state,” Hobbs said in a statement. “I refuse to let radical politicians take control over women’s bodies. My executive order protecting women and doctors from abortion related prosecutions by extremist county prosecutors is still in effect, and I will continue to do everything within my power to fully guarantee the right to reproductive healthcare in Arizona.”
Other Democratic leaders and lawmakers shared similar sentiments but also singled out Republicans in the state for their support of the territorial era ban and legislation that restricts access to abortions.
“Every Republican in the Legislature supported this total abortion ban passed during the Civil War, decades before we even became a state and women gained the right to vote,” House Democratic Whip Melody Hernandez said in a statement. “We know this because the Speaker and Senate President submitted an amicus brief on their behalf asking for exactly that result. We hope they will acknowledge their mistake and work with us to repeal this law before anyone is harmed.”
Even some Republicans have shared their concerns over the ruling.
“Let me be very clear: This decision cannot stand,” GOP state Rep. Matt Gress said in a statement. “I categorically reject rolling back the clock to a time when slavery was still legal and where we could lock up women and doctors because of an abortion. I cannot and will not condemn women, especially the victims of rape or incest, to be forced to carry their pregnancy to term.”
Gress said that he would support a 15-week abortion policy that allowed for abortions in the instances of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.
Republican Senator T.J. Shope shared a similar sentiment on X, formerly Twitter, that he saw the decision by the court as “disappointing” and added that he intends to work with his legislative colleagues to repeal the 1864 abortion ban that is now the law of the land and find a better solution.
But other Republicans cheered on the ruling.
“Americans cannot expect our nation to be healed if we continue to kill our children,” Sen. Anthony Kern said on X. “The 4-2 ruling today by the Arizona Supreme Court was the right one, and I support their decision.”
Kern held a prayer session on the Senate floor the day before about the upcoming decision.
And state Sen. Wendy Rogers reposted a tweet calling for Attorney General Kris Mayes to be impeached over her stating that she would not enforce the territorial ban.
Senate President Warren Petersen and Speaker of the House Ben Toma in a joint statement stating they would be “closely reviewing the court’s ruling, talking to our members, and listening to our constituents to determine the best course of action for the legislature.”
Neither has commented on whether they would heed the call from Hobbs and some of their fellow Republicans to repeal the Civil War-era ban, though both had urged the court to rule the way it did on Tuesday.
Republican Sen. Shawnna Bolick, whose husband sits on the Arizona Supreme Court and ruled in favor of reinstating the territorial era ban, said on X that she wants to see the ban repealed.
“Considering today’s Arizona Supreme Court ruling to uphold Arizona’s 1864 territorial abortion ban, it is time for my legislative colleagues to find common ground of common sense: the first step is to repeal the territorial law,” she said.
Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez said on X that constituents should not believe Republicans who are now asking to find a solution.
“Democrats have a bill that repeals the territorial ban that was introduced in January,” Gutierrez said. “It never got a committee hearing. Don’t believe any Republican in AZ that says that they want to work toward a solution. They don’t.”
The decision by the court Tuesday also elicited a response from the White House, placing blame directly on former President Donald Trump.
“It’s a reality because of Donald Trump, who brags about being ‘proudly the person responsible’ for overturning Roe v. Wade, and made it possible for states to enforce cruel bans,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement. “The alarm is sounding for every woman in America: if he has the opportunity, Donald Trump would sign off on a national abortion ban.”
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is currently running for the U.S. Senate against failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, called the decision “devastating for Arizona women and their families.” Gallego also called out his opponent for her prior statements in which she supported the territorial era ban.
“Yet again, extremist politicians like Kari Lake are forcing themselves into doctors’ offices and ripping away the right for women to make their own healthcare decisions,” Gallego said in a statement. “Lake called this a ‘great law’—even though it will ban nearly all abortions, including in cases of rape or incest.”
Lake herself in a statement on the decision appears to have abandoned her previous support of the 1864 abortion ban.
“I oppose today’s ruling, and I am calling on Katie Hobbs and the State Legislature to come up with an immediate common sense solution that Arizonans can support,” she said in a written statement. “Ultimately, Arizona voters will make the decision on the ballot come November.”
Republican Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said her office has not received a single request to prosecute someone who has sought an abortion and she does not anticipate that changing.
“I have made it clear that this office will not prosecute abortions that were the result of rape, incest, or molestation,” MItchell said in a statement. “As a career sex crimes prosecutor, I am keenly aware that the women—and girls—who get pregnant as victims of these crimes are not hypothetical situations – they are very real names and real faces to me.”
Mitchell added that she is urging Hobbs and the legislature to “delay enforcement of the decision and come together to enact a reasonable law that takes these and other issues into account.”
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