Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed a bill on Thursday that repeals the state’s nearly 160-year-old near-total ban on abortion, clearing the way for a 15-week limit to stay in place.
The Democratic governor signed the legislation just one day after it passed the GOP-controlled Senate, where two Republican senators joined all 14 Democrats to push the bill through. The debate on the Senate floor lasted for hours and grew heated as Republicans criticized the two GOP senators who broke ranks and blasted Democrats over a potential ballot initiative this fall that could enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution.
During a signing ceremony on Thursday, Hobbs and other Democratic leaders said this repeal was just the beginning of a larger fight to protect reproductive rights.
“Today, we shouldn’t stop here,” Hobbs said. “We need to redouble our efforts to defend women’s bodily autonomy, their right to make healthcare decisions, and their control over their own lives.”
This repeal is a big win for abortion rights advocates who’ve been working for years to overturn the 1864 law, which banned abortion at all stages except to save the mother’s life, with penalties of two to five years in prison for providers who violated it.
Despite the repeal, the immediate future of abortion access in Arizona remains uncertain.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s April 9 decision upheld the century-old ban but wasn’t set to be enforceable until June 27 at the earliest, according to the state’s Democratic attorney general, Kris Mayes. However, the new repeal law won’t take effect until 90 days after the state legislature adjourns later this year. This means that, technically, the Civil War-era abortion ban could still come into play for a while.
