Arizona Republicans Block Attempt to Halt Reinstated Abortion Ban

Arizona Republicans have blocked an initial attempt to repeal a 160-year-old abortion ban that was controversially revived by the state’s top court earlier this week.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday a near-total abortion ban enacted in 1864, decades before Arizona even became a state, was still enforceable. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to dismantle federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, the procedure remained legal in Arizona through 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Arizona’s decision to re-establish the archaic law on Tuesday prompted outrage from abortion rights supporters and sent shockwaves through the political landscape, with former President Donald Trump and some of his Republican allies seemingly panicking over implications for the November election, when the issue may be put to voters in a ballot initiative.

While some Republicans have voiced concerns about potentially losing the election over the highly restrictive law, which does not include any exceptions for cases of rape or incest, nearly all GOP lawmakers in the Arizona state House rejected a Democratic bill that would have repealed it on Wednesday.

Abortion rights protesters are pictured a demonstration in Tucson, Arizona on July 4, 2022. Republican state lawmakers on Wednesday blocked an attempt to repeal Arizona’s 1864 law mandating a near-total ban on abortion, which was…

SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP

The only Republican to seemingly support the repeal was state Representative Matt Gress of Phoenix, who reportedly raised a motion to consider the bill before later siding with all of his fellow Republicans by agreeing to end the session without allowing the bill to be considered or voted on.

Democratic representatives reacted to the move by chanting “shame” at Republicans and accusing Gress of attempting to disingenuously signal that he is moderate on the issue to save his political career, according to The Arizona Republic.

Democratic Arizona state Senator Priya Sundareshan, the co-chair of the Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said that she was “disgusted” by the rejection of the repeal in a statement emailed to Newsweek on Wednesday.

“I am disgusted by the actions of my peers, both lying about their stance on this issue so important to Arizonans, and refusing to repeal the 1864 ban,” Sundareshan said. “We need to flip the legislature, pass the ballot initiative, and stop Republicans from taking away this right ever again.”

Gress reportedly said from the House floor that he believed a repeal of the law would eventually succeed, saying that some Republicans “feel very strongly that women should not be condemned to carry out a pregnancy to term, especially victims of rape and incest.”

At least one other Republican also indicated support for a repeal. However, it is not clear when the issue may next be brought up by the Arizona House. It was not on the agenda in the state Senate on Wednesday.

Just one day before the Arizona abortion ban was reinstated, Trump announced that he would not support a federal ban and said that the issue should instead be left up to “the states” and “whatever they decide must be the law of the land.”

While speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump indicated that Arizona “went too far” by reviving the 1864 law, while still insisting that it should be a “state’s rights” issue and suggesting that Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs and state lawmakers would get it “straightened out.”

“As you know, it’s all about state’s rights,” Trump said. “It’ll be straightened out. I’m sure that the governor and everybody else are going bring it back to within reason. And that will be taken care of, I think, very quickly… It’s a perfect system.

“For 52 years, people have wanted to end Roe v. Wade, to get it back to the states,” he continued. “We did that, it was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement. We did that, and now the states have it.”