PHOENIX (LifeSiteNews) — The Arizona House of Representatives voted 32-28 on Wednesday to repeal the state’s near-total abortion ban, with three Republicans joining Democrat lawmakers in moving to undo one of the strongest preborn protections in the country.
The vote concerned a law that prohibits abortion for any reason except when allegedly “necessary” to save the life of the mother. Direct abortion is always gravely immoral and never needed or ethically justified to protect a mother’s life.
On April 9, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that the law was legally enforceable since Roe v. Wade had been overturned, rejecting claims that Arizona’s far more recent 15-week abortion ban had been intended to invalidate it. The near-total ban dates back to before Arizona gained statehood in 1912. It was codified in 1913.
The ruling came down during an ongoing national dispute within Republican and conservative circles over the political viability of strong pro-life stances in an election year, with figures such as former President Donald Trump, Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, and Fox News personality Sean Hannity urging the GOP to abandon the law, which would protect nearly all unborn babies in the state. Arizona’s Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes have vowed not to enforce any of the state’s abortion restrictions.
Hobbes said she was “thrilled” by Wednesday’s vote. Mayes also celebrated the move but complained that the repeal might not take effect quickly.
The three Republicans to cross the aisle were state Reps. Matt Gress, Tim Dunn, and Justin Wilmeth.
Gress condemned the law as “unworkable and out of line with the values of Arizonans,” while continuing to present himself as “pro-life” and bemoaning “extremes on both sides.”
“I urge my Senate colleagues to take up this matter quickly,” he continued.
Dunn attempted a more involved explanation, claiming that the law does not protect “women in life-threatening situations,” though direct abortion is never medically necessary, and criticizing the measure for not allowing the murder of unborn babies conceived in rape or incest.
He also said that he voted to repeal the near-total ban because “public backlash” against the law would lead to “codifying disturbing and unlimited abortions in the Arizona Constitution,” thereby nullifying the state’s 15-week ban, which prohibits around four percent of abortions in the state.
Fourteen states currently ban all or most abortions, with available data so far indicating that now-enforceable pro-life laws could effectively wipe out an estimated 200,000 abortions a year. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrent effects by deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, embedding abortion “rights” in state constitutions.
Arizona’s 15-week abortion ban remains on the books. Pro-abortion activists in the Grand Canyon State are working to place on the November ballot a proposed constitutional amendment establishing a “fundamental right” to abortion up to “viability” and effectively through all of pregnancy under the pretext of “mental health.”