Arizona House sends repeal of state's near-total abortion ban to Senate
PHOENIX — A proposed repeal of Arizona's near-total ban on abortions won approval Wednesday from the state House after two weeks of mounting pressure on Republicans over an issue that has bedeviled former President Donald Trump's campaign to return to the White House.
Three Republicans joined in with all 29 Democrats to vote to repeal a law that predated Arizona's statehood and provides no exceptions for rape or incest. If the Senate approves as expected, Arizona would allow abortions up to 15 weeks.
Their political ambitions imperiled by widespread opposition to a near-total abortion ban, Trump and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake had urged Arizona lawmakers to ease the restrictions. But until Wednesday, most state House Republicans repeatedly used procedural votes to block repeal, each time drawing condemnation from Democratic President Joe Biden, who has made his support for abortion rights central to his reelection campaign.
"Make no mistake, Arizonans are living in 1864 now because Donald Trump dismantled Roe v. Wade," Democratic state Senator Priya Sundareshan of Tucson said in a news conference before the vote. It was organized by the Biden campaign and the Arizona Democratic Party.
Arizona is one of a handful of battleground states that will decide the next president. Trump, who has warned that the issue could lead to Republican losses, has avoided endorsing a national abortion ban but said he's proud to have appointed the Supreme Court justices who allowed states to outlaw the procedure.
Arizona Republicans have been under intense pressure from some conservatives in their base, who firmly support the abortion ban, even as it's become a liability with swing voters who will decide crucial races including the presidency, the U.S. Senate and the GOP's control of the Legislature.
"I am disgusted today," said Republican Representative Rachel Jones, who voted against repeal. "Life is one of the tenets of our Republican platform. To see people go back on that value is egregious to me."
State Representative Matt Gress, one of the three Republicans who crossed party lines to support the repeal measure, said in a statement that the near-total abortion ban was "unworkable and out of line with the values of Arizonans." GOP Representative Tim Dunn said his vote in favor of repeal was "the most pro-life vote I could possibly make" because, he said, backlash to the total ban would lead voters to support abortion even after 15 weeks.
The other Republican who supported the repeal measure, state Representative Justin Wilmeth, didn't return an email and phone call seeking comment on the vote.
The Arizona Supreme Court concluded this month that the state could enforce the long-dormant law that permits abortions only to save the pregnant patient's life. The ruling suggested doctors could be prosecuted under the law first approved in 1864, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for anyone who assists in an abortion.
The law had been blocked since the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, convinced a state judge that the 1864 ban could be enforced. The law hasn't been enforced while the case was making its way through the courts. Brnovich's Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, urged the state's high court against reviving the law.
Mayes has said the earliest the law could be enforced is June 8. But the anti-abortion-rights group defending the ban, Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains county prosecutors can begin enforcing it once the Supreme Court's decision becomes final, which is expected to occur this week.
If the proposed repeal wins final approval from the Republican-controlled Legislature and is signed into law by Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, a 2022 statute banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become the prevailing abortion law. Even so, there would likely be a period where all abortions are outlawed, because the repeal won't take effect until 90 days after the end of the legislative session, likely in midsummer.
Advocates are collecting signatures for a ballot measure allowing abortions until a fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks, with exceptions — to save the parent's life, or to protect her physical or mental health.
Republican lawmakers, in turn, are considering putting one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.