PHOENIX –
A proposal to repeal Arizona’s near-total abortion ban won approval from the state House on Wednesday after two weeks of mounting pressure on Republicans over an issue that has bedeviled former U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to return to the House. White.
Three Republicans joined 29 Democrats on Wednesday to repeal a law that disapproved of Arizona’s statehood and did not provide exceptions for rape or incest. If approved by the Senate as expected, Arizona would allow abortions up to 15 weeks.
With their political ambitions endangered by widespread opposition to a near-total ban on abortion, Trump and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake had urged Arizona lawmakers to ease restrictions. But until Wednesday, most state House Republicans repeatedly used procedural votes to block the repeal, each time drawing condemnation from Democratic President Joe Biden, who has made his support for abortion rights a centerpiece. of his re-election campaign.
“Make no mistake, Arizonans now live in 1864 because Donald Trump dismantled Roe v. “Wade,” Democratic state Sen. Priya Sundareshan of Tucson said at a news conference Wednesday hosted by the Biden campaign and the Arizona Democratic Party.
The repeal vote comes a day after Biden said Trump created a “health care crisis for women across this country” by hindering their access to health care.
Dozens of people were scheduled to gather outside the state Capitol in front of the House and Senate, then filled seats in the public gallery as lawmakers voted, many of them carrying signs or T-shirts showing their opposition to abortion rights.
Arizona Republicans have been under intense pressure from some conservatives in their base who strongly support the abortion ban, even as it has become a drag on undecided voters who will decide crucial races, including the presidency, the U.S. Senate United and control of the Legislature by the Republican Party.
“Today I am disgusted,” said Republican Rep. Rachel Jones, who voted against the repeal. “Life is one of the principles of our Republican platform. “Seeing people regress on that value is appalling to me.”
The Arizona Supreme Court concluded that the state can enforce a long-dormant law that allows abortions only to save the life of the pregnant patient. The ruling suggested that doctors could be prosecuted under the law first passed in 1864, which carries a sentence of two to five years in prison for anyone who assists in an abortion.
A week ago, a Republican in the Arizona House of Representatives joined all Democrats to bring the repeal measure to a vote, but the effort failed twice by 30-30 votes.
The law had been blocked since Roe v. Wade’s decision guaranteed the constitutional right to 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. Still, the law was not enforced as the case progressed. in the tribunals. Brnovich’s Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, urged the state’s high court not to revive the law.
Mayes has said the earliest the law could be enforced is June 8, although the anti-abortion group defending the ban, Alliance Defending Freedom, maintains that county prosecutors can begin enforcing it once the court’s decision Supreme Court is final, which is expected to happen this week. .
If the proposed repeal wins final approval from the Republican-controlled Legislature and is signed into law by the Democratic governor. Katie Hobbs, a 2022 statute that would ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would become current abortion law.
Planned Parenthood officials vowed to continue providing abortions for the short time they are still legal and said they will bolster networks that help patients travel out of state to places like New Mexico and California to access abortions.
Last summer, abortion rights advocates began pushing to ask Arizona voters to create a constitutional right to abortion.
The proposed constitutional amendment would guarantee the right to abortion until the fetus can survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks. It would also allow subsequent abortions to save the lives of the parents or protect their physical or mental health.
Republican lawmakers, in turn, are considering including one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.
A leaked planning document outlined approaches House Republicans are considering, such as codifying existing abortion regulations and proposing a 14-week ban that would be “disguised as a 15-week law” because it would allow abortions up to beginning of the 15th week, and a measure that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant.
House Republicans have not yet made public any of these proposed ballot measures.