Arizona Senate votes to repeal 1864 abortion ban

Arizona’s Senate voted to get rid of a law from 1864 that banned abortion. This was the final effort by Democrats to erase the law from the state’s records. Two Republicans joined Senate Democrats to support this decision. The bill barely passed in the House last week. 

Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, praised the outcome and will make the removal of the law official. This old law, dating back before Arizona was a state, forbids abortion from the moment of conception, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. It came back into effect last month after Arizona’s top court said the ban could be enforced following the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022. 

Today, the Senate finally did the right thing and answered my calls to repeal the 1864 abortion ban.

I’m going to sign it into law.

And we are going to get rid of this awful ban once and for all.

— Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) May 1, 2024

This decision caused a lot of uproar across the country, where most voters support abortion rights. It also motivated efforts to include an abortion question on the ballot in November, aiming to expand rights in Arizona. 

For Republicans facing elections in the fall, this ban presented a big problem. Legislators were caught between pleasing the party’s conservative base and appealing to more moderate swing voters who saw the old law as too harsh. 

Some prominent Republicans, like former President Donald Trump and former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, distanced themselves from the law, saying it didn’t reflect the views of the state’s voters. The repeal bill passed by a vote of 16-14 on Wednesday after two Republicans, Shawnna Bolick and TJ Shope, went against their party and voted yes. Their colleagues criticised them, saying their votes went against “pro-life” values.