Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 17, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
Arizona House Republicans blocked two attempts on Wednesday to repeal an 1864 law protecting life at conception.
In a near party-line 30-30 vote on Wednesday, House Democrats failed to gain a majority of votes to suspend the Legislature’s rules to fast-track a so-called “abortion ban repeal” bill that would have overturned the 1864 pro-life law.
Dormant since being invalidated by Roe v. Wade in 1973, the 1864 law protects all unborn life from conception and imposes prison time for those who “provide, supply, or administer” an abortion.
This temporarily stalls ongoing efforts to repeal the law, which is set to go into effect in the next 37 days.
Debate on the House floor was tense just before the vote as Democrats called the pro-life law “abhorrent” and “archaic.”
Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez bashed Republicans, saying that “the fact that we will not even entertain a motion to allow those who have been raped or pregnant by incest to be able to have an abortion is extremely, extremely disappointing.”
Republican Rep. Ben Toma, meanwhile, said: “I understand that we have deeply held beliefs [about abortion], and I would ask everyone in this chamber to respect the fact that some of us believe that abortion is in fact the murder of children.”
Abortion is currently legal in Arizona until the 15th week of pregnancy. If the 1864 law takes effect, however, all abortion will be illegal, except in cases in which the mother’s life is in danger.
Outrage from abortion advocates erupted last week when the Arizona Supreme Court issued an April 9 ruling that cleared the way for the law to go back into effect. The court ruled that since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, there were no legal reasons to keep the law from being enforced.
Planned Parenthood is continuing abortions in Arizona for the time being. The abortion organization holds that a separate ruling by the Maricopa County Superior Court keeps the 1864 law from being enforced until 45 days after the high court’s ruling.
After the state Supreme Court’s ruling, Democrats in the Arizona House moved quickly to repeal the law, demanding a vote on the measure on April 10. That attempt was also blocked by Republicans. After their efforts to repeal the law were blocked, Democrats began shouting “shame” and “blood on your hands” at their Republican colleagues on the House floor.
This comes as Arizona will likely be one of several states considering an abortion-until-birth amendment on the ballot this November. If passed, the amendment would enshrine a “right” to abortion in the state constitution, strike down virtually all of Arizona’s pro-life protections, and legalize abortion until viability and through all nine months of pregnancy for physical or mental health reasons.
The group advocating for the amendment, Arizona for Abortion Access PAC, has surpassed the required number of signatures and already filed language with the state to include the proposal on the November ballot.
The Arizona secretary of state’s office has yet to verify the signatures, which must happen before the initiative will officially be on the ballot.
The Arizona Catholic Conference, which consists of the state’s four bishops, has spoken out against the ballot initiative, saying that it would “remove most safeguards for girls and women” and “allow for painful late-term abortions of viable preborn babies.”
“We do not believe that this extreme initiative is what Arizona wants or needs, and we continue to pray that it does not succeed,” the Arizona bishops said in a statement published April 9.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, 11,530 babies were killed through abortion in Arizona in 2022.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Trump, by his latest declarations, reveals he is not setting up for an incremental removal of abortion; instead, he is leading what amounts to a abortion inclusive balanced approach to accommodating what are considered to be admissible abortions.
Two of the consequences of that approach would likely be that State level criminalizing of abortion would not be supported -would be undermined- and the FACE law would be made to stand.
Trump has made his move knowing it can marginalize true pro-life. He has made a calculation that he can suffer that and be successful anyway. And, that he can use it to force some pro-life support.
Priests will be suggesting that voting for him will be the lesser evil than voting for Biden. For various reasons. In fact it is not possible for Catholics to vote for a man who has declared openly and explicitly for abortion.
The fact that President Biden can be considered excommunicated does not allow voting for a non-Catholic who promises to arrange structured abortion society and law.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/planned-parenthood-committed-record-392715-abortions-last-year-annual-report/?utm_source=featured-news&utm_campaign=usa
I can’t agree with Stephen P. White -see CATHOLIC THING “Incrementalism and Abortion”.
Trump is not even doing incrementalism and he is saying so. He might read this and try and adjust his tune; however, the horse left the stable. He set his move away from “Dobbs no right to abortion”, by inserting a “Dobbs accommodation of abortion by straight laws”. This is not contemplated in the JPII statement because now pro-life is being actively commandeered into the abortion structuring and adaptations.
Trump and his people have been studying us. They are defining the political engagement with the law as the Dobbs result. It would seem then that, until otherwise shown, the minority opinion in Dobbs is the fallback interpretation key.
They mean to shackle pro-life.
It does not mean pro-life is lost. I suggest it means pro-life needs new targets and modalities and new realism; and that this really could be fortuitous.
I have said elsewhere if you do not come to terms with the new semantics (Dobbs) and how that is followed, they will run circles round you.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/04/18/incrementalism-and-abortion/
“Trump is not even doing incrementalism and he is saying so.” No kidding. His character and his history have been on display all along, so anyone who thought he was the second coming of Ronald Reagan was willfully deceiving himself. Trump is a New Yorker who has New York values, but he opportunistically chose to play the role of what he thinks a conservative is — really, a cartoon caricature of a conservative. It is because he lacks real conservative convictions that he happily endorses Bud Light and Disney World and is baffled when some refuse to go along.
… and Trump condemns them for it. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-falters-on-abortion/
Sometimes the lesser evil is still too evil to accept. Be careful before you deny that, or you’re only being picky about which demon you sell your soul to.
I’m not sure what the back story is behind all this in AZ, but God bless them.