The Arizona Supreme Court's ruling Wednesday upholding an 1864 ban on nearly all abortions caused chaos and confusion across the state. Abortion providers were inundated with calls from frantic patients, while Republican lawmakers at the state Capitol blocked efforts to repeal the ban, prompting angry jeers from Democratic lawmakers.
Democrats saw the decision to reinstate the 160-year-old ban as a pivotal election issue and sought to pass the bill in the Republican-controlled Congress. repeal the banthey said the measure would protect women's health and freedom and force Republicans to formally vote on the law.
But Senate Republican leaders removed one bill from the day's agenda Wednesday, according to legislative aides. In the House, Republican lawmakers who had wanted to repeal the law filed a motion calling for a vote on the Democratic repeal bill, which has been stalled for months. But Republican leaders quickly ended that effort by calling for a recess, which they then adjourned until next Wednesday.
Democrats in the Senate chamber shouted, “Shame on you!” “Save a woman's life!” Her Republican colleagues filed out of the chamber.
“I don't understand why we can't move forward,” said Democratic state Sen. Anna Hernandez of Phoenix. “Are they serious about this or not?” she said of the Republican Party. “Are they just sitting back because they know they're on the losing side of the policy battle?”
Despite pressure from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers to repeal the law, it is unclear whether Republican leaders, who narrowly control both chambers of Congress, will allow immediate action on the proposed repeal of the ban. Ta.
Republican Rep. Teresa Martinez, an abortion opponent, criticized Democrats for trying to force a vote the day after the court ruling. She called their chants and cries the actions of extremists and insurrectionists.
“We don't want to repeal the pre-Roa law without first talking about it,” he said in a floor speech. “There is no need to rush on this very important topic. We must listen thoroughly to all opinions. When our colleagues are acting as they have this morning, we You can’t do that.”
Both the Senate President and House Speaker are Republicans; issued a joint statement As the legal battle over the 1864 law returns to lower courts for further debate over its constitutionality, he stressed that the court's ruling has not yet taken effect and likely won't for several weeks.
They said they are reviewing the ruling and will listen to voters to decide what Congress should do. However, Axios reported that House Speaker Ben Thoma opposed the repeal and said he would not allow it to be voted on.
Democrats argue that the delayed session of the Arizona Legislature limits their time and options to repeal the law.
The decision and the ensuing backlash exposed divisions among Arizona Republicans over support for abortion restrictions. And it underscores how abortion has become a political weakness for Republicans, even in traditionally conservative states, since the Roe v. Wade reversal two years ago.
Some Arizona Republicans who had previously voted to uphold abortion restrictions or provide legal protections to unborn children suddenly reversed course after Tuesday's ruling, calling for repeal or other legislative changes. .
On Wednesday, former President Donald J. Trump, who is claiming credit for appointing U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned the constitutional right to abortion, called out the Arizona high court's overreach and said, “It will definitely be right.'' “I believe it will be done,” he said. ”
But the state's ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus praised the court's decision, saying it protected innocent lives and vowed to oppose efforts to overturn it.
Clinics and patients scramble to make sense of the legal and administrative mess left by a 4-2 vote by the Arizona High Court, with little certainty as to when the 160-year-old ban will go into effect again. did.
At Camelback Family Planning in Phoenix, the phone is constantly ringing, with patients asking if they still have services and for how long, said Dr. Gabriel Goodrick, the practice's owner and medical director. He is asking if he can receive it.
“They're just freaking out,” Dr. Goodrick said.
Her clinic is one of seven independent abortion facilities in the state that have been closed twice to date following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Medical Institution. , said it was forced to temporarily stop providing abortions. Dr. Goodrick said the threat of having to stop again due to Prohibition in 1864 would upend the practice and threaten the health of patients.
“We live in a dystopia,” she said. “I hope Congress does something about it. This is not what Arizonans want.”
Although the number of abortions nationwide has increased since the Dobbs decision, Arizona was one of the few states to see a decline in abortions from 2020 to 2023, even though abortion remained legal. Doctors say that's partly due to uncertainty over the 1864 Prohibition, which has remained dormant for as long as Roe has been the law of the land.
(A similar decline occurred in Wisconsin, where a ban from 1849 still stands. A judge ruled last year that the law did not make abortion illegal, but the state Supreme Court (Currently considering an appeal against that decision).
Emergency room doctors, anesthesiologists and obstetricians said they fear they could be sued if they participate in an abortion, even if a woman's health or life is at risk. Dr. Julie Kwatra, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Honor Health in Scottsdale, said policies from hospitals and their lawyers have alleviated some of those fears.
“This feels like a disaster,” Dr. Kwatra said. “Dobbs' decision was a shock. Even if people weren't completely happy with Week 15, there was a sense that Arizona dodged a bullet,” she said.
“Now, no. We didn't dodge a bullet,” she said.
In the month after Roe was overturned, the number of abortions in Arizona fell to 210 from 1,470 the month before, according to We Count, the Planned Parenthood Association's index. In the months that followed, the monthly numbers started to rise again, but then fell by nearly 18% from 2021 to 2022, according to data from the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The number of abortions in Arizona decreased by 10% from 2020 to 2023, according to the Guttmacher Institute. By contrast, there was a 257% increase in New Mexico, where many abortion providers relocated from prohibition states after Roe was overturned.
Due to an order in a separate lawsuit surrounding the ban, the state cannot begin enforcing the ban until 45 days after the state Supreme Court's ruling. Planned Parenthood and other clinics said they would continue to provide abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy for the “short term” until the ban goes into effect.
The average distance to an abortion provider in Arizona is now about 52 miles and 36 minutes, according to the Abortion Access Dashboard maintained by researchers at Middlebury College. Under the ban, women seeking abortions would have to drive approximately four hours and 348 miles, the database estimates.
Arizona Attorney General Chris Mays, a Democrat, said he would not allow charges to be filed under the law. But Dr. Kwatra, who is the state's legislative chair for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, says her health care providers have told her there is no risk in offering an abortion.
“What happened after Dobbs was that there was a period where abortions weren't being offered, and then they were being offered shortly after, and people on the ground didn't know that. We still had patients going out of state because it wasn't there.' And they still thought it was illegal,'' she said. “That chilling effect remains a problem. It causes people to leave the state, which delays care.”
“Even if a provider doesn't close, staff may leave,” Dr. Kwatra said. “The dark cloud of illegality still remains.”