The Arizona Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a law from 1864 that makes performing an abortion a serious crime.
What is the significance of this?
The 4-2 ruling rejected arguments for a 15-week abortion ban and effectively makes the medical procedure almost entirely against the law in the state.
The law dates back to the Civil War era, which is before Arizona became a state in 1912. The court removed the suspension on the law, which means it will be enforced in 14 days.
It will make performing or assisting a pregnant person in getting an abortion a serious crime that could lead to two to five years in jail. There are no exemptions for cases of rape or incest, but there are exemptions in situations considered “necessary” to save the pregnant person’s life.
Voters can eliminate these restrictions by voting in November. The law would likely shut down abortion clinics in the state, but it’s unclear how it will be enforced at this point.
Resistance from all levels and sides
Lawmakers from both political parties have publicly disagreed with the state Supreme Court’s decision.
President Biden slammed the decision as part of the “extreme” Republican agenda. Biden’s campaign criticized criticized former President Trump on social media for his role in appointing three of the five justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The state’s 15-week abortion ban, signed in 2022 by then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R) will be invalidated. Ducey said the ruling is not the result I would have chosen” and stated the 15-week ban was a “thoughtful conservative approach” to the “very sensitive issue.”
Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) stated that the decision is “far from the end of the debate” on reproductive freedom in the state. She expressed that “no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this Draconian law” while she is serving as attorney general.
Both Kari Lake and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), the main candidates in the state’s Senate race, released statements opposing the decision. Other lawmakers, including Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) have objected to the law.
Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) called it a “dark day in Arizona” and urged lawmakers to “do the right thing right now” and revoke the 1864 law “immediately.”
Hobbs has issued an executive order preventing county attorneys from prosecuting women and doctors for performing abortions that she said “still stands.” She said she “won’t rest” and “won’t stop fighting until we have secured the right to abortion.
The legislative text
ARS 13-3603 refers to a section of the state’s law that bans abortion in nearly all cases. The text reads:
“A person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than two year nor more than five years.”
The state’s Supreme Court stated in the Tuesday decision that the text was first published in a code of governing laws by the First Legislative Assembly in Arizona. It was later entirely adopted after Arizona became a state.
