What A Day: Gasping for Arizona

Arizona just reinstated an abortion ban that predates the invention of the light bulb.

• The State Supreme Court of Arizona on Tuesday upheld an 1864 law that bans nearly all abortions in a 4-2 decision. The law has a two-week stay while it’s sent back to a lower court to hear additional arguments about its constitutionality, and another 45-day delay before enforcement. But the state Supreme Court decided that because the 2022 Dobbs decision overturned the federal right to abortion, there is no federal or state law preventing Arizona from enforcing the near-total 1864 ban.

• 1864! Abraham Lincoln was still alive! Women weren’t legally allowed to wear pants yet! Not only that, this law was on the books before Arizona was even a state! The law prohibits abortion from the moment of conception, except when necessary to save the life of the mother, and makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Doctors prosecuted under the law could face not only fines but prison terms of up to five years.

• Shortly after the decision was announced, President Biden released a statement calling the ban “cruel,” “extreme,” and “dangerous.” He further categorized the trigger law as the “result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.” Biden promised to “continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe vs. Wade for women in every state.” Later in the day, the White House announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to the Copper State for an event on “reproductive freedoms.”

Reactions to the proposed reinstatement of the Civil War-era ban were mostly negative, even from Republicans in the state, who know that such extreme abortion restrictions are politically toxic.

• The Alliance Defending Freedom—the conservative Christian advocacy group behind all of today’s worst legislation—was ecstatic about the decision, with one of their attorneys saying that it “allows the state to respect the right [to life] and fully protect life again — just as the Legislature intended.” But other Republicans aware of the political moment immediately condemned the trigger law in various ways. State Senator TJ Shope (R-AZ) said he would work to repeal the 1864 ban but leave in place a 15-week ban that was passed two years ago by the legislature and signed into law by former GOP Gov. Doug Ducey.

• MAGA darling Kari Lake said that “the pre-statehood law is out of step with Arizonans.” But when she was running for governor in 2022, Lake supported the law. Just two years ago, Lake said in a radio interview: “I’m incredibly thrilled that we are going to have a great law that’s already on the books,” which she said will “prohibit abortion in Arizona except to save the life of a mother. And I think we’re going to be paving the way and setting course for other states to follow.” Lake went on to lose her bid for governor to Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) who excoriated the ban in a press conference on Tuesday.

State Attorney General Kris Mayes (D-AZ) said she wouldn’t enforce the “unconscionable” ruling, which she called “an affront to freedom.”