Elected Republicans in Arizona rushed to do damage control after the state Supreme Court upheld a ban on almost all abortions from 1864, and some assured voters that they knew the 160-year-old ban was not appropriate for today. Democratic lawmakers in the state immediately tried to push through bills that would repeal the draconian ban, but that’s where the Republican resistance to the law ended.

Republican leadership in the state Senate removed one bill from the day’s agenda on Wednesday, and in the state House, GOP leadership put the chamber into recess before any votes could be held. Profiles in courage! Democrats on the Senate floor (rightly) jeered their Republican colleagues as they filed out of the chamber. State House Speaker Ben Toma (R-AZ) told Axios he would not support repealing the 1864 statute. A New York Times-Siena College poll found in October that 59 percent of Arizonans believe abortion should mostly or always be legal.

The Arizona decision has created a national firestorm, and Republicans are soiling themselves trying to figure out what to do. Disgraced former president Donald Trump, after months of obfuscating and refusing to stake out a clear position, said on Monday that he believes abortion restrictions should be left up to the states. We’re guessing he didn’t foresee the resurrection of a Civil War-era ban in one of those states the following day. Trump went so far as to say on Wednesday that he would not sign a federal abortion ban if one reached his desk should he be reelected in November, but as with everything the man says, who knows what he actually means.