Arizona can enforce an 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions, court says

Abortion

April 9, 2024

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state can enforce its long-dormant law criminalizing all abortions except when a mothers life is at stake.

The case examined whether the state is still subject to a law that predates Arizonas statehood. The 1864 law provides no exceptions for rape or incest, but allows abortions if a mothers life is in danger. The states high court ruling reviewed a 2022 decision by the state Court of Appeals that said doctors couldnt be charged for performing the procedure in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

An older court decision blocked enforcing the 1864 law shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to an abortion. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, then state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge in Tucson to lift the block on enforcing the 1864 law. Brnovichs Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, had urged the states high court to side with the Court of Appeals and hold the 1864 law in abeyance. Todays decision to reimpose a law from a time when Arizona wasnt a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldnt even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state, Mayes said Tuesday.