PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has signed a repeal of nearly all Civil War-era abortion bans, a sobering occasion for women working to ensure the 19th-century law remains in the past. It became.
Current and former state legislators and reproductive rights advocates crowded the ninth-floor rotunda outside Hobbs’ office Thursday afternoon, hugging and snapping selfies to capture the moment. was. Some people cried.
“This is a historic moment, a place and time where all the thrilling moments come together,” Democratic Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton said at the signing ceremony. “It’s time to wipe away what was.” he said. It doesn’t suit today’s times. ”
Stahl and Sen. Anna Hernandez, also a Democrat, were recognized for their efforts to ensure the repeal of a long-dormant law banning all abortions except those performed to save the patient’s life. They were the two sitting members of Congress to speak at the ceremony.
The initiative received final approval in the Senate on Wednesday in a 16-14 vote. Two Republicans joined Democrats during a nearly three-hour session in which motivations for voting were explained in personal, emotional and even biblical terms. It contained graphic descriptions of abortion procedures and amplified audio of fetal heartbeats, along with warnings against “legalizing religious beliefs.”
On the Senate floor, anti-abortion supporters heckled state Republican Sen. Shauna Bolick as she explained her vote for repeal, and was later reprimanded by her Republican colleagues. Bolick is married to state Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, who voted in April to reinstate the 1864 law. He will face a Remain election in November.
The House had previously approved the repeal, with three Republicans in the chamber breaking ranks.
Hobbs says this move is just the beginning of the fight to protect reproductive health care in Arizona. The repeal is scheduled to go into effect 90 days after the end of Congress, typically in June or July after the budget is approved.
“This means everything to get this outdated and inhumane territorial law off the books,” said Phoenix-based Camelback Family, which performs one-third of abortions in Arizona.・Planning founder Dr. Gabriel Goodrick said:
A 2022 law banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy will become a common abortion law in Arizona.
Abortion rights advocates leading the Arizona Planned Families Act have filed a petition in the state Supreme Court to block the 1846 law from going into effect before it is repealed. If denied, abortion services for girls and women could be suspended.
The 19th century law was blocked in Arizona by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, and the constitutional right to abortion was guaranteed nationwide. When the federal law was overturned in 2022, Arizona was left in legal limbo.
Last month, the Arizona Supreme Court took the state back several decades and reinstated a ban with no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest. The judges suggested the doctors could be prosecuted for violating the law, which could result in up to five years in prison if found guilty.
The anti-abortion group Defending Freedom, which defends the ban, says county prosecutors could begin enforcing it once the Supreme Court’s ruling is finalized, but no ruling has been made yet. Arizona Democratic Attorney General Chris Mays has called for the ban to be delayed until late July.
Meanwhile, abortion rights advocates are gathering signatures to enshrine reproductive rights in Arizona’s constitution. The proposed ballot measure would allow the fetus to remain viable outside the womb (usually around 24 week), abortion will be allowed.
Republican lawmakers are considering putting one or more competing abortion proposals before voters in November.
Elsewhere in the U.S. this week, supporters of an abortion rights initiative in South Dakota submitted far more signatures than needed to get on the ballot this fall, while in Florida, many are still pregnant after six weeks of pregnancy. ban on most abortions. I know they are pregnant.
President Joe Biden’s campaign believes anger over the Roe v. Wade loss will provide political advantages in battleground states like Arizona, with Republican leaders divided on the issue.
For the Democratic women who led the repeal effort in Arizona, Thursday was a day of celebration, but they said it also showed there was more work to be done.
In an interview before the signing ceremony, Stahl-Hamilton spoke about her early days on the Navajo Nation. His parents were school teachers there, and federally funded clinics still limited abortion services.
She spoke about her sister-in-law, who suffered two difficult pregnancies, one stillborn and the other non-viable and “had no brain development, so we had to make the heartbreaking decision to terminate the pregnancy.” “It didn’t happen.” ”
“And I imagine if these laws had been in place at the time she needed care, it would have been a real disaster,” Stahl-Hamilton said.
When the Civil War-era Prohibition was passed, all 27 members of Congress were male, the United States was at war over the right to own slaves, and women could not vote, Hobbs said. Currently, the Arizona Legislature is almost evenly divided between men and women.
Hernandez became involved in politics after his brother Alejandro was killed in a police shooting in April 2019. She and her two other siblings have portraits of Alejandro tattooed on her left arm.
Her sister is a delivery nurse and has two nieces, ages 16 and 12.
“At this moment, I think about them being able to grow up in the state that we love and have the rights that they have,” she said.
Former Democratic state Rep. Athena Salman was so overcome with emotion that she could barely speak when she was called to the podium at the signing ceremony Thursday. She proposed repealing the 19th century law in 2019, three years before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Salman, who resigned as head of the abortion rights group in January, said he couldn’t stop thinking about his daughters.
“Future generations will not have to live with the restrictions and disturbances that we have had to experience,” she said.
