Breaking Digest previously reported that President Trump officially declared his stance on abortion in a video released on Truth Social. The 45th President affirmed that he would defer the decision to each individual state.
Following Trump’s announcement, Arizona’s Supreme Court issued a historic ruling. The court upheld a historic law from 1864, prohibiting nearly all abortions, with the sole exception of cases where it is necessary to save the life of the mother.
BREAKING.🚨
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) April 9, 2024
Arizona Supreme Court upholds law banning abortion in the state.
The state court ruled Tuesday that “a 160-year-old near-total abortion ban still on the books in the state is enforceable, a bombshell decision that adds the state to the growing lists of places where… pic.twitter.com/LwQIhvjpVn
In December 2022, a previous appeals court ruling that shielded doctors from prosecution under a pre-statehood abortion ban was overturned by the state’s highest court.
The decision revived the historic 1864 abortion ban, effective 14 days after the ruling. Justice John R. Lopez IV, in a 4-2 split decision, clarified that Arizona’s law permitting abortions up to the 15th week of pregnancy relied on the now-overturned federal constitutional right to abortion.
With this right abolished by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization two years prior, the 1864 law now becomes the governing statute. Justice Lopez stated that the 15-week law alone doesn’t authorize abortions, and since there’s no federal or state law opposing the 1864 statute, it is now enforceable.
Consequently, this decision effectively makes all abortions illegal in Arizona, except when necessary to save a woman’s life.
AZ Central reported:
The decision was 4-2, with Justices John R. Lopez IV, Clint Bolick, James P. Beene and Kathryn H. King in the majority. Lopez wrote the majority opinion, while Vice Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer penned a dissent. Chief Justice Robert M. Brutinel joined Timmer.
“Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal … and that additional criminal and regulatory sanctions may apply to abortions performed after fifteen weeks’ gestation,” the ruling reads.
The majority ruled that a law passed in 2022, which prohibited abortions after 15 weeks, did not repeal the pre-statehood law nor create a right to abortion. The justices said the 2022 law was enacted by the Legislature because the prior law was at the time enjoined in court.
“Life is a human right, and today’s decision allows the state to respect that right and fully protect life again—just as the legislature intended,” said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jake Warner, who argued the case before the court in favor of the pre-statehood ban.
One immediate effect of the ruling could be more support for a potential ballot measure in the works for this year. Advocates say they’ve already got more than 500,000 signatures, well above the threshold of 383,923 signatures needed by an early July deadline.
