The upper house of the Arizona Parliament voted on Wednesday to repeal a law banning almost all abortions and dating from 1864, which the Supreme Court of this state in the southwestern United States had deemed applicable in early April.
The repeal of this law, which prohibits any voluntary termination of pregnancy from the moment of conception, unless the mother’s life is in danger, must now be promulgated by the Democratic governor of Arizona.
The right to abortion has emerged as a major issue in the presidential campaign in the United States. Arizona is among the swing states that could decide the final outcome.
Neither rape nor incest are considered valid exceptions, according to the 1864 law. The local Supreme Court’s decision sparked intense controversy in the country, being condemned by Joe Biden but also more moderately criticized 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. The 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 voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion).
An electoral issue
However, Arizona Attorney General, Democrat Kris Mayes, had long warned that she would not initiate any prosecution. A decision which could have changed according to the elections, the attorneys general being 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.
The promoters of a popular initiative announced in April that they had collected the signatures to obtain a referendum to include abortion in the Arizona Constitution. 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.
Through his appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, the latter prides himself on having resulted in the cancellation of federal protection of abortion in June 2022, but insists on the electoral risks of an overly conservative position on the question.