The Supreme Court of the state of Arizona on Tuesday banned abortion in almost all cases by recovering a contested law from 1864, which makes said procedure illegal, except in those cases in which aborting saves the life of the pregnant person.
The highest court in Arizona ruled against abortion, with penalties of up to five years in prison for non-compliance, after in 2022 the then Republican governor, Doug Ducey, already signed a law that prohibited the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy. pregnancy.
In 1971, the Planned Parenthood association, in favor of reproductive rights and offering abortions, sued the state and managed to end the 1864 law, since a judge ruled in its favor, but now the situation has changed again.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of obstetrician Eric Hazelrigg, who along with Yavapai County Attorney Dennis McGrane intervened in defense of the 1864 law. Hazelrigg runs a network of crisis pregnancy centers, facilities where pregnant women are counseled. that they do not abort.
“In the absence of the federal constitutional right to abortion, there is no provision in federal or state law that prohibits (the 1864 law) its application. Consequently, (the 1864 law) is now applicable,” ruled Arizona Supreme Court Justice John R. López IV.
In this way, Arizona joins the almost two dozen states that have prohibited and restricted access to abortion since the country's Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. ruling in 2022. Wade, who protected abortion at the federal level.
The recent decision came in the middle of the electoral campaign for the United States presidential elections next November, in which abortion is one of the most controversial issues and polls indicate that a majority of Americans oppose a ban on the procedure.
On the other hand, the Attorney General of Arizona, Kris Mayes, described this sentence as “disproportionate” and considers it “an affront to freedom”: “Let us not make a mistake, by annulling a law passed this century and replacing it with another from 160 years ago.” , the Court has endangered the health and lives of the citizens of Arizona,” he said.
President Joe Biden also believes that the ban is “cruel” and, in a statement issued by the White House, stated that “this ruling is the result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to taking away the freedom of women".
“Millions of people in Arizona will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is in danger or in tragic cases of rape or incest,” the president added.
At the same time, the US Supreme Court has a case against the abortion pill on its calendar and will also hear arguments in a complaint against the almost total ban on abortion in Idaho.
This ban in Arizona will go into effect within 14 days.