Arizona House Republicans block Democratic efforts to overturn 1864 abortion ban

Arizona House lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a Democrat-backed effort to repeal the 1864 near-total abortion ban.

Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, D-Tucson, called for a procedural vote to fast-track her bill repealing the ban. Republican leaders shut down that motion but allowed a vote on whether their move to block Stahl Hamilton's was correct.

Republicans hold a one-seat majority in the House, so flipping two GOP votes would have allowed the chamber to move forward with the repeal bill. Ahead of the vote, state Republican Reps. Matt Gress of Phoenix and David Cook of Globe indicated they backed repeal.

Gress voted with Democrats to rule that GOP leadership was incorrect in stopping Stahl Hamilton's motion. Cook, who last week told CNN, "What we're going to start with is this territorial law needs to be repealed," stuck with his party. That led to a 30-30 vote, which preserved Republicans' ability to block the repeal bill.

Democrats tried moving the motion a second time, but the resulting vote was the same.

Cook told The Arizona Republic he wants to repeal the 1864 law, but only by doing it “the right way.” Waiving the rules isn’t proper, he said.

“I’ve never rolled my leadership or my speaker,” Cook said after the vote against the repeal.

Republicans could do a late introduction of their own bill, or the speaker can grant permission for a committee to hear a bill, he said, adding: “If we start doing away with all the rules, then why even have them to begin with?”

However, it’s unclear if enough Republicans could be gathered for those ideas.

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The 1864 law was revived last week in a state Supreme Court decision that made headlines nationwide. The following day, Republicans shut down attempts to push an immediate repeal, triggering loud protests from Democrats.

The ruling, combined with the importance of the abortion issue in this year's national election, has drawn national media to the Arizona Capitol.

Stahl Hamilton introduced a House bill earlier this year that never got a committee hearing, but if there is enough support, it could be brought up for a final vote. The bill is a "clean repeal" of the 160-year-old law, meaning it simply removes the abortion measure from the law books without adding anything new.

Roughly 100 people gathered outside the Capitol early Wednesday at a Right to Life event to remind GOP lawmakers who might waver and support the repeal of their views. They prayed for lawmakers to “stand for those who cannot stand for themselves,” passing out plastic yellow flowers and red rose buds.

A handful of state lawmakers mingled in the crowd, as did former congressmen Matt Salmon and Trent Franks, a candidate to return to Congress this year.

Micah Killough, 41, of Mesa, said he and his family wanted to encourage GOP lawmakers to stand true to their views on abortion, and not cave to pressure to repeal the ban after the state Supreme Court ruling last week.

“That’s my concern,” Killough said, “that they’re going to bend to what they perceive to be public opinion, as opposed to standing on principle. We want them to know that they have constituents that stand with them and do support the right to life, and support protecting children.”

Killough and his five children each held stems of yellow flowers. Asked about their significance, his youngest daughter spoke up.

“The guy said it was because babies are beautiful like flowers," the 10-year-old said.

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Republican lawmakers are discussing strategies to compete with the Arizona for Abortion Access initiative, which would enshrine the right to an abortion in the Arizona Constitution.

There are no measures on Wednesday's calendar allowing Republicans to insert some of those strategies into an existing House concurrent resolution. Those plans were made public on Monday when a House GOP memo outlining various measures to counteract the initiative was also sent to House Democrats, presumably accidentally.

Meanwhile, the state Senate has a busy calendar with non-abortion bills queued up for a vote. There is a chance that if a repeal is approved by the House, the measure could be sent to the Senate immediately, but it would take several days of work before it could be up for a final vote.

Reporters Stacey Barchenger and Ray Stern contributed to this article.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @maryjpitzl.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: AZ abortion ban: Democratic lawmakers fail to overturn 1864 law