After weeks of national outcry and intense political warfare, Katie Hobbs on Thursday signed into law a measure to repeal an 1864 near-total abortion ban that was passed before Arizona even became a state.
The signature of the Democratic Arizona governor is the result of a stunning turn in Arizona politics and the white-hot debate over abortion rights post-Roe v Wade. The 1864 ban, which only permits abortions to save a woman’s life, had long threatened to return to force, but in April the Arizona supreme court ruled the ban could be enforced.
The decision unleashed unprecedented outrage in a state that promises to be a major battleground in the November elections – and a handful of Republicans, who hold a one-seat majority in the Arizona state house and senate, ultimately broke with the Arizona GOP and joined Democrats to vote for the repeal.
Hobbs’ signature does not alone guarantee that the ban will not take effect. Arizona legislation typically takes effect 90 days after the conclusion of the state legislative session, which may last into the summer. Arizona Democratic lawmakers lacked the numbers to add an emergency clause into the repeal to let it go into effect earlier; although legal maneuvers have delayed the ban’s implementation, the it may temporarily come into force.
On Wednesday, Planned Parenthood of Arizona announced that, in light of Hobbs’ anticipated signing of the bill, it was filing a legal motion to ask the courts to hold off on enforcing the 1864 ban.
Abortion is currently banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Arizona. Come November, the state looks likely to hold a ballot measure that would ask voters to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.