In a landmark ruling on Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court decreed that the state must comply with a 123-year-old law that prohibits all abortions, except when necessary to save the life of the pregnant individual.
This law, which has its roots in 1864 and was officially enacted in 1901, imposes a prison term of two to five years for those providing abortions. The law is currently under a 14-day stay.
Arizona’s near-total abortion ban will rank among the most stringent in the country, aligning it with Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi, where almost no exceptions to abortion bans exist.
The court, in its ruling, stated, “All abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal,” and physicians are now on notice. It added that criminal penalties may now apply for abortions conducted after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Although a babies heartbeat starts at half to six weeks gestation, a vaginal ultrasound can pick up a baby's heartbeat. This indicates the baby has a soul, and is alive.
Arizona’s Democratic Governor, Katie Hobbs, criticized the decision, pointing out that Arizonans were already living under unacceptable abortion restrictions before this ruling.
“Arizona’s 2022 abortion ban is extreme and harmful to women. The near-total ban from the Civil War era that still looms over us only serves to create more chaos for women and doctors in our state,” Hobbs told reporters shortly after the decision was announced on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden warned on Tuesday that “Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest.”
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes assured in a statement that her office would not enforce the law, stating, “As long as I am Attorney General, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state.”
This case is the latest in a series of high-profile battles over abortion access that have unfolded across several states since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2022. Since that decision, nearly two dozen states have banned or limited access to the procedure. Providers have warned that restrictive policies on abortion access place patients at risk of poor health outcomes and doctors at risk of legal liability.
Arizona Senator Eva Burch shared her personal experience at a news conference on Tuesday, “A couple of weeks ago, I had an abortion – a safe, legal abortion here in Arizona for a pregnancy I very much wanted, a pregnancy that failed. Somebody took care of me. Somebody gave me a procedure so that I wouldn’t have to experience another miscarriage – the pain, the mess, the discomfort. And now we’re talking about whether or not we should put that doctor in jail.”
Reproductive rights advocates have condemned the ruling and pledged to fight for abortion rights.
“This ruling will cause long-lasting, detrimental harms for our communities. It strips Arizonans of their bodily autonomy and bans abortion in nearly all scenarios,” Planned Parenthood Arizona said in a statement.
The Arizona court had indicated in a notice on Monday that it would file an opinion in Planned Parenthood of Arizona vs. Mayes/Hazelrigg on Tuesday.
Justices heard opening arguments in the case last December, when abortion rights opponents claimed the state should revert to the 1901 ban, and advocates asked the court to affirm the 2022 law allowing abortions up to 15 weeks.
When he signed the law in March 2022, then-Gov. Doug Ducey stated the 2022 law would not override the older law.
In late 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled both abortion laws in the state must be reconciled, or “harmonized.”
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