(Los Angeles) The Arizona House of Representatives voted Wednesday to abolish an 1864 law banning almost all abortions, deemed applicable two weeks ago by the Supreme Court of this key American state on the electoral plan.
Several moderate Republicans joined their votes with Democrats to achieve a majority for the abolition of this law which prohibits all abortion from the moment of conception, unless the life of the mother is in danger. Neither rape nor incest are considered valid exceptions, according to the abolished law which caused great controversy in the country, being condemned by Joe Biden but also criticized in a more moderate way by Donald Trump.
Having remained dormant for decades, this law “is now applicable,” according to a decision rendered on April 9 by the Arizona Supreme Court. This ruling takes note of the reversal of jurisprudence by the Supreme Court of the United States which annulled in June 2022 the federal guarantee of the right to abortion.
Since this decision giving states full latitude to legislate in this area, around twenty have banned or severely restricted access to abortion.
The Attorney General of Arizona, Democrat Kris Mayes, has however long warned that she would not initiate any prosecution, but this could change depending on the elections since prosecutors are elected in the United States.
The decision “to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona was not a state, the Civil War raged and women could not even vote, will go down in history as a stain on our state “, she lamented on April 9.
Promoters of a popular initiative recently announced that they had collected signatures for a referendum to enshrine abortion in the Arizona Constitution. If confirmed, this vote should take place at the same time as the presidential election in November, as will for example be the case in Florida (southeast), another decisive state.
Outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden is making the defense of women’s rights a major focus of his campaign for a second term, facing his Republican opponent Donald Trump.
The latter himself prides himself on having, through his appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, resulted in the reversal of jurisprudence of June 2022, but points out the electoral risks of an overly conservative position on abortion.