The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law banning abortion in the state.
Three Republican lawmakers are among Democrats supporting efforts to overturn the 160-year-old law.
Wednesday’s vote, 32 to 28, marked the third attempt in three weeks by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to repeal the long-dormant law that the US Supreme Court State ordered Arizona to implement earlier this month, in light of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v in 2022.
The repeal effort now heads to the state Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans, and could vote on repeal as soon as next Wednesday.
Arizona Democrats have pilloried the law almost completely banning abortion, calling it “archaic and cruel.”
Most Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives, however, opposed repealing the law, which allows the prosecution of doctors who perform illegal abortions and provides no exceptions for rape or incest.
“I’m proud of my caucus for fighting this as long as we have,” Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Travis Grantham said, according to the Arizona Mirror. “I hope people are happy now.”
“Stop calling the ban on abortion archaic. It’s archaic to perform abortions,” Republican Representative Barbara Parker argued before the House.
Former President Donald Trump criticized the state Supreme Court’s decision earlier this month, arguing that the justices had gone “too far” and predicting that the situation would be “put right… very quickly.”
Scottsdale Rep. Alexander Kolodin denounced fellow Republicans who said failure to repeal the Civil War-era law would result in losses for the GOP in November.
“We are willing to kill infants to win an election. In this context, it’s a little more difficult to digest,” he said. “Politics is important, but it is not worth our soul.”
If the repeal effort succeeds in the state Senate, it will be sent to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk for her signature. Hobbs opposed the 1864 law.
The centuries-old law is set to take effect June 8 and would replace the state’s current 15-week abortion ban.
New York Post
