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The Arizona Senate voted Wednesday to repeal the state’s 160-year-old near-total abortion ban, three weeks after the state Supreme Court reinstated the law and made reproductive rights a political focus. It was approved.
Two Republicans, Sens. Shauna Bolick and TJ Shope, along with the chamber’s 14 Democrats, voted to move forward with the repeal, passing it 16-14.
The vote is an effort by three Republican senators to repeal the law, which bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy except to save the mother’s life and threatens those who perform abortions with two to five years in prison. The move comes a week after he joined all 29 Democratic members of the state Legislature.
The bill will next go to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who said Wednesday she looks forward to “quickly signing the repeal.” If passed, the bill would clear the way for the state’s 15-week limit to remain as state law. The restrictions, enacted in 2022, do not include exceptions for rape and incest.
“This repeal is essential to protect women’s lives, but it is only the beginning of the fight to protect reproductive health care in Arizona,” Hobbs said in a statement.
Republicans, who hold a one-seat majority in the state House and Senate, have passed what are known in the state as pre-law and territorial prohibitions, references to Roe v. Wade and laws that predate Arizona’s creation. There is growing pressure to abolish it. .
Prominent Republicans, including former Gov. Doug Ducey, former President Donald Trump and Senate candidate Kari Lake, are urging Congress to take steps to ease the ban.
Bolick explained her vote in favor of repeal with a deeply personal statement describing her own pregnancy experience, including a miscarriage. She spoke for more than 20 minutes, despite abuse from her audience and interference from her Republican colleagues.
“I know all these pregnancy records because they are all my own,” Bolick said. “And my family survived each time, including my miscarriage.”
Bolick is married to Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, who was one of the judges who ruled that the 1864 law could go into effect. She said the 15-week limit is an alternative to the Arizona Abortion Access Amendment, which enshrines in the state constitution the right to abortion until the fetus is viable, which doctors believe is around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy. She concluded her remarks by saying that.
“I support saving more babies’ lives until we can make better choices on this issue,” Bolick said.
Even if the bill is signed into law, it is unclear what will happen to abortion access in the state in the immediate future. The state’s Democratic Attorney General Chris Mays said the court’s April 9 decision reinstating the pre-Roe ban has been put on hold and is not expected to go into effect until June 27 at the earliest. However, the repeal would not take effect until 90 days after the Arizona Legislature adjourns.
On Tuesday, Mays asked the Arizona Supreme Court to give him an additional 90 days to consider whether to appeal the court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Civil War-era Prohibition was first introduced in 1864 and codified in 1901, before Arizona gained statehood in 1912. This law remained in effect until his 1973 year, when it was prohibited by a court injunction after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Months before Roe was overturned in June 2022, the state passed a 15-week restriction and made clear it did not overturn the pre-Roe ban. On April 9, the state Supreme Court ruled that the ban should become state law.
For abortion rights advocates, repeal would be the culmination of years of work. Democrats first introduced a bill to repeal the territorial ban in 2019.
Democratic state Sen. Priya Sundareshan, co-chair of the Arizona Democratic Party’s campaign arm, said her party would have repealed the ban the day the state Supreme Court’s ruling was issued if it had control of the Legislature. He said he would have done so.
“Instead, we needed to drag the Republican Party to the finish line,” she said in a statement.
Even after the repeal passes, Democrats plan to argue that the 15-week limit and lack of exceptions for rape and incest remain unpopular. At the state legislative level, the plan is to target House Republicans who are vulnerable over past anti-abortion votes.
“As Republicans regroup to defend the 15-week ban and undermine Arizona’s upcoming abortion voting bill, we will continue to support Democratic majorities in the Arizona Legislature, with two in each chamber. We are focused on flipping seats,” President Heather Williams said. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the state Legislature, said in a statement.
Republicans hope the 15-week limit will make it more palatable to voters and help neutralize the strength of reproductive rights as a voting issue.
“There’s definitely still some fallout,” said Arizona-based Republican strategist Barrett Marson. “But it will definitely help Republicans that the territorial ban is no longer the law of the land.”
In addition to being a battleground state for president and senate, Arizona has two House races and numerous races in the state legislature that could determine control of the state’s upper and lower chambers. be. Democrats have not controlled both chambers of Congress since the 1960s.
Abortion rights advocates are also collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.
Still, the repeal would be a blow to abortion opponents who have rallied at the state Capitol in recent weeks to praise the ban.
As senators took to the floor to explain their votes, the debate became contentious and at times emotional, with some Republicans criticizing two defectors from the Republican Party. Republicans who voted against repeal invoked faith, rejecting the idea that the territorial ban must be repealed in order to win the next election.
Republican state Sen. Anthony Kern, one of the fake electors in Arizona’s 2020 election, called the self-proclaimed “pro-life” Republican’s vote to repeal the ban “the epitome of delusion” and called his vote “the epitome of delusion.” He compared it to Nazi Germany’s selection of Jews in extermination camps. .
State Sen. Wendy Rogers said our ancestors made the right decision in defining the state’s territory.
“When my colleagues say, ‘But it’s politically expedient to be a moderate because you might lose votes, you might lose Congress, you might lose the presidential election, you might lose the federal election. ‘That’s politically smart,”’ Rogers said. He said. “And I tell you, it’s more important to do the right thing.”
Democratic state Sen. Eva Birch, who recently talked about having an abortion after a failed pregnancy, was one of the few Democrats to speak out in favor of a repeal vote. Birch warned against “legislating religious beliefs” and criticized Republicans for not considering repealing the 1864 law when it was brought up in the past.
“We cannot ignore the majority of Arizonans and only listen to voices that lean toward partisan politics, because we will silence everyone else in the process,” Birch said.
This heading and article have been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Natasha Chen, Jason Kravarik and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
