Photo: Rebecca Noble Getty Images via Agence France-Presse Repeal of the 1864 law banning abortion from the moment of conception unless the mother's life is in danger must be signed into law by Arizona Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs.
France Media Agency in Los Angeles
Posted at 6:33 p.m.
- United States
The upper house of the Arizona Parliament voted on Wednesday to repeal a law banning virtually all abortions dating from 1864, which the Supreme Court of this state in the southwestern United States had deemed applicable at the beginning of April.
The repeal of this law which prohibits any voluntary termination of pregnancy from the moment of conception, unless the mother's life is in danger danger, must now be promulgated by the Democratic governor of Arizona.
The right to abortion has emerged as a major issue in the presidential campaign in the United States. United. Arizona is among the swing states that could decide the final outcome.
Neither rape nor incest are considered valid exceptions, according to the 1864 law. The local Supreme Court's decision sparked intense controversy in the country, being condemned by Joe Biden but also more moderately criticized by Donald Trump.
Laid dormant for decades, this law “is now enforceable,” according to a decision rendered on April 9 by the Arizona Supreme Court. The ruling takes note of the reversal of jurisprudence by the Supreme Court of the United States which annulled in June 2022 the federal guarantee of the right to abortion.
Since this decision giving states full latitude to legislate in this area, around twenty have banned or severely restricted access to voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion).
An electoral issue
However, Arizona Attorney General, Democrat Kris Mayes, had long warned that she would not initiate any prosecution. A decision that could have changed depending on the elections, the attorneys general being elected in the United States.
The decision “to reimpose a law dating from a time when the 'Arizona was not a state, where the Civil War raged and women couldn't even vote, will go down in history as a stain on our state,' she lamented on April 9.
The promoters of a popular initiative announced in April that they had collected the signatures to obtain a referendum to include abortion in the Arizona Constitution. This vote should take place at the same time as the presidential election in November, as will be the case for example in Florida (southeast), another decisive state.
The president Outgoing Democrat Joe Biden is making the defense of women's rights a major focus of his campaign for a second term, facing his Republican opponent Donald Trump.
Through his appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, the latter prides itself on having succeeded in June 2022 in the cancellation of federal protection of abortion, but insists on the electoral risks of an overly conservative position on the question.