In a 4-2 decision on Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that protects most preborn children from abortion throughout pregnancy unless the life of the mother is in danger. There are no other exceptions.
According to NBC News, the Court said it will put its decision on hold for 14 days, and send the case back to a lower court to consider “additional constitutional challenges.” The law would make an induced abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who commits one or helps a woman obtain one.
However, Attorney General Kris Mayes said that she will 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,” Mayes said in a statement. She called the ruling “unconscionable” and “an affront to freedom.”
President Biden said the law to protect innocent human beings in the womb is “cruel” and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said she is “sure” that abortion advocates will be appealing the decision.
According to Politico, despite the ruling, abortion will remain legal in the state through 15 weeks until at least late May following a promise from the former attorney general to allow a window of 45 days between the Supreme Court’s ruling and the law taking effect. The court’s decision will undo a lower court’s ruling that determined the state’s more recent law, which only protects children from abortion after 15 weeks, superseded the 1864 law.
13 weeks post-fertilization, 15 weeks LMP
The 1864 law does not prohibit miscarriage treatment, treatment for ectopic pregnancy, or preterm delivery in an emergency, none of which are induced abortions.
Regardless of the state Supreme Court decision, pro-abortion advocates in Arizona are working to get a proposed pro-abortion constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would create a “fundamental right” to kill preborn babies in the state constitution. If voters approve that proposed amendment, the 1864 law protecting innocent preborn lives — as well as a 15-week law protecting the preborn — would be unenforceable.
The state Supreme Court’s decision is the result of a challenge to the 1864 law by Planned Parenthood, which sought to block the law’s reinforcement following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
