The Arizona Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a dormant law from 1864 banning nearly all abortions can be enforced, overruling a lower court decision that doctors can’t be prosecuted for performing abortions after 15 weeks.
The 1864 law provides no exceptions for rape or incest and allows abortions only if the mother’s life is in jeopardy. The court suggested that doctors can be prosecuted for performing abortions. This law was written before Arizona became a state in 1912.
After SCOTUS overturned Roe in 2022, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican (duh), successfully requested that a state judge lift an injunction that blocked enforcement of the 1864 ban. His successor, Democrat Kris Mayes, urged the state supreme court not to do this.
The law orders prosecution for “a person who provides, supplies or administers to a pregnant woman, or procures such woman to take any medicine, drugs or substance, or uses or employs any instrument or other means whatever, with intent thereby to procure the miscarriage of such woman, unless it is necessary to save her life.”
The ruling says, “In light of this Opinion, physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal.” The justices noted additional criminal and regulatory sanctions may apply to abortions performed after 15 weeks of pregnancy. And did you like that “now on notice” shit?
It should also be noted that this court is entirely Republican. Like Florida’s supreme court, all the justices on Arizona’s high court were appointed by Republican governors.
This is what Republicans mean when they say, “Make America great again.” When was America “great?” Was America “great” when women were oppressed, when there were no child labor laws, when there was no minimum wage, when there were no regulations, when women weren’t allowed to vote, when black people weren’t allowed to vote, or when slavery was legal?
The Republican Party is the repressive party. All their ideas take America backward.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan gave a speech on “states rights” at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi. Neshoba County is the location of the murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. Reagan’s use of “states rights” in Neshoba County was a wink, nod, and reach-around to racists. Reagan went on to use the slogan, “Make America Great Again” throughout his campaign.
Donald Trump and today’s Republicans mean the same thing when they say, “Make America great again.” And if you thought they only wanted to take us back to the 1960s, it’s worse. Arizona Republicans just showed the party’s hand, the cards are on the table, and they want to take us back to the 1860s. How many Republicans have openly expressed a desire for a second civil war?
I’ll say it again. When Republicans and MAGAts tell you who they are, believe them.
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writing from the frozen north…..the laws from the century before last are going to be enforced? Could women even vote back then?….this seems amazing to me!
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That is an excellent question and the answer is no. Women were not allowed to vote in Arizona in 1864.
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I have a lot of American friends, can’t see how this will fly in the elections for you guys…..surely women can’t support a law that they were specifically excluded in the creation of? I guess fiction has to make some sense, reality perhaps not so much (stealing a quote from elsewhere)….all the best, love your work!
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Carl, women in Arizona and all over the USA are up in arms over this. I think (and fervently hope!) that all this crap that the Republicans are pulling out of their asses these days will backfire and cause them to lose more support. I really think their party will come crashing down in November.
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many thanks for the reply. I have 7 older sisters….and i could only imagine their collective fury on something like that :-). I also have 2 daughters and 2 grandkids, so I am solidly behind them all the way…..we are a more Matriarchal society up here; fishermen were mostly away , so the Mother ruled the roost and ran the home! But I have to shake my head a bit – where the F^&k are the real MEN in all this for you guys???…I (and a lot like me) would never stand for someone taking rights from our daughters and sisters and wives and mothers….. a man should NEVER forget who gave him life and how he came to be. in this world….how some one can possibly forget and/or ever disrespect that fact I find mind-blowing.. As an example of how weird some of us are up here; i have a cousin who did a bit of jail-time out west, he come out of a bar to find some guy beating on a woman. No hesitation at all in bringing that to a halt, and when the judge asked at trial “You don’t seem to have much remorse for putting a man in hospital” the reply was…no, and i’d do again in a heart-beat…no man has a right to hit a woman! …and he only has 4 sisters….;-). all the very best and i wish you well. There were 3 American bases in our province for WWII, and one of my brothers-in-law had an American Service-man as a father…..so I am not denigrating your country in any way….1% on the vote the other way and we would be American and not Canadian right now….
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Thanks for the reply, Carl – I didn’t perceive any denigration on your part, so not to worry! :) There are many, many, men as angry about all of this as women are – I think we’re just so loud that we’re drowning them out. LOL! All of the men that I know are just (or close to) as pissed off as we are. Sadly, there are so many ultra-conservatives in power at the moment that it often feels like our hands are tied. BUT – changes are coming! I wish I was still young, healthier, and could get out there with signs and yell and scream like I used to in my youth. Now I’m reduced to being a ‘keyboard warrior’ like many of my friends. Many of the men I know are in the same boat, so we do what we can and know that our young people have had good ‘trainers’. I appreciate that they get out there and do what they do!
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