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ARIZONA CAN ENFORCE AN 1864 LAW CRIMINALIZING NEARLY ALL ABORTIONS,
STATE SUPREME COURT RULES  
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Associated Press
April 9, 2024
The Boston Globe
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_ Under the decision, a long-dormant law that predates Arizona’s
statehood would take effect. It provides no exceptions for rape or
incest, but allows abortions if a mother’s life is in danger.
Enforcement can take effect in 14 days. _

Protesters in Phoenix shout as they join thousands marching around
the Arizona state Capitol after the U.S. Supreme Court decision to
overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion decision on June 24, 2022.,
Ross D. Franklin/AP

 

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona can soon enforce a long-dormant law
criminalizing all abortions except when a mother’s life is at stake,
the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, opening the door to prosecuting
doctors who perform the procedures.

Under the decision, a long-dormant law that predates Arizona’s
statehood would take effect. It provides no exceptions for rape or
incest, but allows abortions if a mother’s life is in danger.
Enforcement can take effect in 14 days.

The ruling suggests doctors can be prosecuted for performing the
procedure, but the majority ruling doesn’t explicitly say that. The
1864 law carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for doctors
or anyone else who assists in an abortion.

Arizona’s high court ruling reviewed a 2022 decision by the state
Court of Appeals that said doctors couldn’t be charged for
performing the procedure in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

State Sen. Arizona Eva Burch, who dramatically announced on the Senate
floor last month that her pregnancy wasn’t viable and she was
getting an abortion, criticized GOP lawmakers who expressed support
for the ban.

“We know that every single Republican in the Arizona House and
Senate supported this territorial total ban on abortion — they
signed an amicus brief affirming that very fact,” said Burch.
“This moment must not slow us down.”

Burch noted that Arizonans will be able to vote this fall on a ballot
measure allowing the right to abortion, adding that “the right for
reproductive rights is not over in Arizona.”

Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of
pregnancy, with limited exceptions. Two states ban the procedure once
cardiac activity can be detected, which is about six weeks into
pregnancy and often before women realize they’re pregnant.

Nearly every ban has been challenged with a lawsuit. Courts have
blocked enforcing some restrictions, including bans throughout
pregnancy in Utah and Wyoming.

In Arizona, an older state Supreme Court decision had blocked
enforcing the 1864 law shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the
1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to an
abortion.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022,
state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state
judge in Tucson to lift the block on enforcing the 1864 law.
Brnovich’s Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, had
urged the state’s high court to side with the Court of Appeals and
hold the 1864 law in abeyance. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022
decision ending a nationwide right to abortion, most
Republican-controlled states have started enforcing new bans or
restrictions and most Democrat-dominated ones have sought to protect
abortion access.

A proposal pending before the Arizona Legislature that would repeal
the 1864 law hasn’t received a committee hearing this year.
“Today’s decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona
wasn’t a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn’t even
vote will go down in history as a stain on our state,” Mayes said
Tuesday. Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who signed the state’s
current law restricting abortion after 15 weeks, posted on X saying
Tuesday’s ruling was not the outcome he would have wanted.

“I signed the 15-week law as governor because it is thoughtful
policy, and an approach to this very sensitive issue that Arizonans
can actually agree on,” he said. President Joe Biden called the
1864 Arizona law cruel.

“Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and
dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their
health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest,” he said in
a statement. “Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast
majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose. We will
continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress
to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade.”

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* Abortion Bans; Arizona Abortion Decision;
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