The Arizona Senate voted Wednesday to repeal an 1864 regulation that outlawed nearly all abortions within the state – and made no exception for circumstances of rape or incest.
The repeal measure handed 16-14, with two Republicans – state Sens. Shawnna Bolick and TJ Shope – becoming a member of all 14 state Senate Democrats in voting to quash the pre-statehood regulation.
Wednesday’s vote got here precisely one week after the Arizona Home voted 32-28 to nix the long-dormant regulation, which the state Supreme Court docket had ordered officers to implement final month in gentle of the Supreme Court docket’s June 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The invoice now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who is predicted to signal it.
“After nearly a month of Republicans blocking and prolonging Democrats makes an attempt to go laws that might repeal Arizona’s whole abortion ban that was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court docket in early April, Senate Democrats compelled the repeal to the governor’s desk,” Arizona state Senate Democrats stated in an announcement.
Democratic state Sen. Anna Hernandez, the repeal invoice’s sponsor, known as Wednesday’s vote “a step in the direction of making certain our proper to decide on and defending our entry to abortion in Arizona” however “not the top.”
“We should proceed to combat till our rights are assured within the structure,” she stated in an announcement.
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who’s working to interchange impartial Kyrsten Sinema within the US Senate, echoed Hernandez’s sentiments.
“This is a crucial step, however our work isn’t performed. Arizona girls deserve higher,” the congressman wrote on X.
“That’s why we’re going to go a constitutional proper to abortion and defeat anti-abortion extremists like Kari Lake this November,” Gallego added, referring to his GOP opponent.
Lake signaled her opposition to the Civil Struggle-era regulation final month.
“This whole ban on abortion that the Arizona Supreme Court docket has dominated on is out of line with the place the folks of this state are,” Lake stated in a video posted on X days after the excessive courtroom’s ruling.
Nonetheless, Lake later expressed disappointment that the regulation was not being enforced by Arizona’s Democratic legal professional basic, Kris Mayes.
“The Arizona Supreme Court docket stated that is the regulation of Arizona. However sadly, the folks working our state have stated we’re not going to implement it,” she advised the Idaho Dispatch.
Former President Donald Trump additionally criticized the state Supreme Court docket’s ruling final month, arguing that the judges went “too far” and predicting that it might get “straightened out … in a short time.”
The centuries-old regulation was set to enter impact on June 8, and it might have outmoded the state’s present 15-week abortion ban.
Abortion rights advocates in Arizona say they’ve gathered sufficient signatures to position a poll measure amending the state structure on Nov. 5 of this yr.
