Seemingly caving to pro-abortion backlash, legislators in the Arizona House of Representatives have voted to repeal the state’s 1864 law protecting most preborn children from abortion.
Earlier this month, the Arizona Supreme Court voted to uphold the law, which allows abortion only if the mother’s life is endangered. Under the law, committing an induced abortion — in which a preborn child is intentionally killed — is a felony, punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who commits the abortion or helps a woman obtain one.
Attorney General Kris Mayes, however, has openly announced that she would not enforce the law. “Let me be completely clear, as long as I am Attorney General, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state,” she said in a statement, calling the state Supreme Court’s ruling “unconscionable” and “an affront to freedom.”
No other form of homicide in the United States, other than the killing of a preborn human being upon the request of his or her mother, is considered a form of “freedom,” nor is disallowing any other form of homicide considered “draconian.” In fact, according to Americans United for Life, Arizona has laws against all other forms of fetal homicide — even “from the moment of conception”:
AUL Arizona Fetal Homicide Laws
Republicans in the House were able to block two previous efforts to repeal the law; however, three Republicans eventually crossed party lines and voted with all of the House Democrats, with a final vote of 32-28. “I’ve known for a while that the votes were there, it just takes a lot of fortitude, a lot of spine,” Stephanie Stahl Hamilton told ABC News. “The eyes of the world were watching Arizona, and that’s not hyperbole, and so these are decisions that we need to make for people and if you were able to talk to folks in these districts, you would find that this is an issue where they are showing up and representing the people in their district, which is what they were elected to do.”
READ: ‘Saturday Night Live’ mocks 1864 Arizona pro-life law… but guess what else passed in 1864?
One of the Republicans who chose to vote in favor of repeal, Tim Dunn, said in a statement that he did so because the law isn’t perfect. “Many of you know that Eileen and I are deeply pro-life. It’s always been a core value for us,” he said, and then added, “The recent decision by the Arizona Supreme Court has upheld a law first created in 1864. This law is not perfect. Unfortunately, protecting women in life-threatening situations and accounting for cases of rape were not considered at the time of its passing. I am voting today to repeal that law.”
The bill now heads to the Senate for a vote, where several Republicans have already given their support for repeal, and then to Gov. Katie Hobbs to be signed into law. It would then take 90 days to take effect, and after that, the state would revert to a law which protects preborn children from abortion after 15 weeks gestation. The earliest the Senate could vote on the bill is May 1st, according to the Washington Post; Hobbs has already promised to sign it should the bill pass the Senate.
The Arizona Supreme Court decision was met with outrage across the country, leading to speculation that Republican dissenters have buckled under the pressure – and not everyone is happy about it. “I am disgusted today,” Rep. Rachel Jones, a pro-life Republican, said. “Life is one of the tenets of our Republican platform. To see people go back on that value is egregious to me.”
