The repeal of the abortion ban passed by a vote of 16-14 and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Katie Hobbs.
The Arizona Senate has voted to repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban, which otherwise would have taken effect within weeks.
The repeal was approved by the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 16-14 and is expected to be signed quickly by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. Two Republican senators crossed party lines and voted to repeal the ban.
The Arizona House of Representatives passed the measure last week after a handful of Republicans broke from the party and voted with Democrats to send it to the Senate.
“We are here to repeal a bad law,” Sen. Eva Burch, a Democrat, said from the floor. “I don’t want us to respect laws about women that were passed at a time when women were forbidden from voting.”
Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers, in voting to uphold Prohibition of 1864, said repealing the law contradicted Arizona’s conservative values.
“Life begins at conception. They got it right in 1864. We must continue to get it right in 2024,” Rogers said.
The dispute over the Civil War-era abortion ban in Arizona, a state sharply divided between Democrats and Republicans, is the latest flashpoint for women’s reproductive rights in the United States. In 2022, the country’s Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion, leaving states to decide the issue. Conservative-led states quickly imposed strict bans on the procedure within their borders.
Democrats across the U.S. are confident that public opinion is on their side in supporting abortion rights and have sought to raise the issue ahead of November’s presidential election. Arizona is a key battleground state.
Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to state legislatures, said her party would capitalize on the “extreme nature of MAGA Arizona Republicans” who support retaining the law 1864 voted as Democrats seek to flip the state’s House of Representatives and Senate in November’s election.
Rogers, the Republican state senator, acknowledged the political risks.
“Some colleagues would say it is politically pragmatic to find a middle ground,” she said. “We could lose the legislative session, we could lose the presidential election. But it’s more important to do the right thing.”
Almost complete ban on abortion
The 1864 law was revived by a state Supreme Court ruling on April 9, and if the Legislature had not intervened, it would have taken effect within 60 days of that ruling, according to Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat.
If the repeal bill is signed, a 2022 law banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become Arizona’s predominant abortion law. Still, there would likely be a period during which almost all abortions would be banned, since the repeal would not take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, which is expected to take place in June or July.
Planned Parenthood Arizona, a sexual health organization in the state, said it filed a petition with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon to prevent a disruption to abortion services until the repeal takes effect.
The near-total ban on abortion existed before Arizona became a state.
Under the 1864 law, “any person” involved in an abortion can be prosecuted and face a prison sentence of at least two years.
There are no exceptions for cases of rape or incest, although there is an exception if the pregnancy endangers a woman’s life.