Gov. Katie Hobbs has vowed to sign repeal bill.
Arizona’s near-total abortion ban will be repealed just weeks after the state’s Supreme Court ruled it enforceable.
The Arizona House narrowly passed the repeal on April 24 as three Republicans joined with Democrats to approve the measure.
On May 1, the state Senate followed suit in a 16–14 vote—but not before several disappointed senators had the opportunity to air their grievances.
“What we’re actually voting on is death,” state Sen. Anthony Kern said, chiding the members of his Republican party who voted with Democrats in support of the repeal.
“The Democrat Party stands and runs on death. The Republican Party stands and is supposed to run on life.”
State Sen. Sonny Borrelli, meanwhile, objected to the fact that the bill was never sent to a committee, nor was any time allotted for debate or amendments. And during one particularly emotional moment, state Sen. Justine Wadsack recounted her own tragic loss of a child by miscarriage.
“God chose when that heartbeat was going to stop,” Ms. Wadsack said, tears streaming down her face. “It is not my place as a senator to determine when a child’s heart stops beating.”
The abortion ban prohibits all abortions in Arizona except those performed to save the mother’s life. It was initially enacted in 1864, before Arizona was a state, though it was later recodified by the Legislature in the late 1970s.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has promised to sign the repeal once it reaches her desk, though it will not be effective until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. At that point, a 2022 law limiting abortions to 15 weeks of pregnancy will become the state’s prevailing law.
In the meantime, however, the abortion ban is slated to take effect on June 27.
Proponents of the repeal, pointing to the ban’s pre-statehood origins, had argued that it was outdated and inconsistent with the state’s more recent laws.
“I don’t want us honoring laws about women, written during a time when women were forbidden from voting because their voices were considered inferior to men,” state Sen. Eva Burch said May 1.
