Arizona House votes to repeal 1864 abortion ban

Sheri Walsh
·3 min read
UPI
Arizona’s Republican-controlled House voted Wednesday to overturn the state’s Civil War era ban on nearly all abortions. The vote paves the way for a repeal that would revert Arizona abortion law to a 15-week ban. Photo courtesy of AZcapitalmuseum.gov

April 24 (UPI) -- Arizona's Republican-controlled House voted Wednesday to overturn the state's 1864 ban on nearly all abortions. The vote paves the way for a repeal that would revert Arizona abortion law to a 15-week ban.

The measure, which now heads to the state Senate for a vote next week, passed Arizona's House on Wednesday by a vote of 32 to 28 as three Republicans joined with Democrats.

"I refuse to buy into the false notion pushed by the extremes on both sides of this issue that we cannot respect and protect women and defend new life at the same time," state Rep. Matt Gress, one of the three Republicans who voted with Democrats, said in a statement.

"We're willing to kill infants in order to win an election," Republican state Rep. Alexander Kolodin countered, as he blasted his colleagues. "Legalizing abortion up until birth is not going to help us win an election. Politics is important, but it's not worth our souls."

A failure to repeal the 160-year-old abortion law would allow it to go into effect as early as June 8, according to state Attorney General Kris Mayes. While it is unclear whether the state Senate will pass the repeal legislation, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is expected to sign it if it reaches her desk.

Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed the state's 15-week abortion limit three months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in 2022. But the nearly total abortion ban, dating back to 1864, was codified in 1901. It remained in effect until 1973 when Roe vs. Wade made abortion a federal constitutional right.

On April 9, Arizona's state Supreme Court upheld the Civil War era abortion law, which makes it a felony to perform an abortion and punishable by a prison term of between two and five years.

In response, abortion rights activists in Arizona are working to put a constitutional amendment proposal on the November ballot that would protect abortion up until fetal viability, which doctors believe is around 22 to 24 weeks gestation.

Republicans are working to put a competing abortion measure on the ballot in an effort to slow the abortion rights initiative drive.

After Wednesday's House vote, Mayes urged the Senate to act quickly.

"I am grateful that sanity prevailed in the Arizona House today with the repeal of the draconian, near-total abortion ban," Mayes said in a statement. "I call on the Senate to quickly follow suit and join the House in repealing this law."

"Unfortunately, without an emergency clause that would allow the repeal to take effect quickly, we may still be looking at a period of time when the 1864 law could potentially take effect."