The Arizona Senate, in the United States, voted on Wednesday to repeal a controversial law dating back to 1864 that provides for an almost total ban on voluntary termination of pregnancy, and penalties of two to five years in prison for those who cause one. Last month the local Supreme Court ruled that that law was legitimate and applicable, making the possibility that it could return into force real.
The law establishing its repeal was approved in the Senate with 16 votes in favor and 14 against: two Republican senators, Shawnna Bolick and Thomas Ray Shope, voted in favor together with all 14 Democratic senators (the Arizona Senate it is controlled by the Republicans, who have 16 seats compared to the 14 occupied by the Democrats). It was approved in the House last week, with 32 votes in favor (all 29 Democrats plus 3 Republicans) and 28 against.
To go into effect, the law must now be signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat. It will happen today, Thursday, and is considered a formal step: Hobbs said she was very in favor of repealing the 1864 law, which she defined as “essential to protecting women’s lives”.
The repeal of the 1864 law will allow Arizona to continue regulating abortion under the current law, passed in 2022, which allows abortions in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. However, there is a certain period of time in which, despite the vote for repeal, the 1864 law could still be implemented: the repeal will in fact not come into force before 90 days following the end of the summer legislative session, scheduled for June or July.
That’s why Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit clinic organization that provides many health services to women, filed a motion on Wednesday asking the Supreme Court to bar the suspension of pregnancy termination services until the repeal goes into effect .
Arizona is one of the US states that have grown the most economically over the last twenty years and therefore also one of those that have changed the most, becoming younger, more urban and cosmopolitan. Local politics has long been dominated by Republicans, but in the 2020 election, most of the state’s voters voted for Democrat Joe Biden.
