The Arizona State Senate has voted 16 to 14 to repeal an abortion ban that has been in place since 1864. The repeal now awaits the signature of Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, who has pledged to sign it into law.
Discussions in the State Senate were far from smooth, featuring theatrical speeches and frequent interruptions due to protestations from the gallery.
Arizona’s legislative action comes after a judgment by the state’s Supreme Court deemed the centuries-old abortion ban enforceable. This decision followed the US Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling to overturn the landmark case of Roe v Wade, causing a 52-year-old case to return to trial court.
Two weeks after the state Supreme Court’s ruling, the Arizona State House passed the bill to repeal the ban, HB2677, and consequently sent the bill to the State Senate.
The abortion ban was instated shortly after Arizona became a US territory, years before achieving statehood. As part of the Howell Code, the ban was one among many legal statutes, spanning various areas of law, including bigamy, dueling, and mayhem.
The original code stated, “Every person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years.”
The 1864 regulation permitted an exception if a doctor performed an abortion to save the mother’s life. In the following year, the regulation was slightly altered to extend the life-saving exception to any individual performing an abortion. The regulation, essentially unaltered since 1865, was codified into Arizona state law in the early 20th century.
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