PHOENIX (AP) — A proposed repeal of Arizona's near-total abortion ban won House approval Wednesday after two weeks of accelerating pressure on Republicans over a difficulty that has weighed on former President Donald Trump's campaign to return to the White House .
Three Republicans joined all 29 Democrats on Wednesday to repeal a law that predated Arizona statehood and provided no exceptions for rape or incest. If the Senate approves as expected, Arizona would allow abortions as much as 15 weeks.
With their political ambitions threatened by widespread opposition to a near-total abortion ban, Trump and U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake had urged Arizona lawmakers to ease restrictions. But by Wednesday, most Republicans within the state House of Representatives repeatedly used procedural votes to dam the repeal, every time drawing condemnation from Democratic President Joe Biden, who has made his support for abortion rights a centerpiece of his reelection campaign.
“Make no mistake, Arizonans are now living in 1864 because of Donald Trump’s Roe v. Wade dismantled,” Democratic Sen. Priya Sundareshan of Tucson said in a pre-vote news conference organized by the Biden campaign and the Arizona Democratic Party.
The repeal vote comes a day after Biden said Trump had created a “health care crisis for women across the country” by jeopardizing their access to health care. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the vote was an indication that “we are moving in the right direction.”
Arizona is certainly one of the few battleground states that can determine the following president. Trump, who has warned that the problem could lead on to Republican losses, avoided endorsing a national abortion ban but said he was happy with appointing the Supreme Court justices who allowed states to achieve this to disallow.
Dozens of individuals gathered outside the state Capitol before the House and Senate were scheduled to convene, then filled seats in the general public gallery as lawmakers voted. Many of them carried signs or shirts showing their opposition to abortion rights.
Republicans in Arizona have been under intense pressure from some conservatives of their base who strongly support the abortion ban, at the same time as it gains traction amongst swing voters who determine crucial races resembling the presidency, the U.S. Senate and the GOP's control of the Legislature has turn out to be a burden.
“I’m disgusted today,” said Republican Rep. Rachel Jones, who voted against the repeal. “Life is one of the tenets of our Republican platform. To see people resorting to this value is outrageous to me.”
State Rep. Matt Gress, certainly one of three Republicans who crossed party lines to support the repeal measure, said in a press release that the near-total abortion ban is “unworkable” and inconsistent with Arizonans' values. Republican Rep. Tim Dunn counterintuitively said that his vote for repeal was “the biggest pro-life vote I could ever make” because, as he said, the backlash against the whole ban would cause voters would still support abortion even after 15 weeks.
The other Republican who supported the repeal measure, Rep. Justin Wilmeth, didn’t return an email or phone call searching for comment on the vote.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and several other lawmakers said Wednesday they’d push for a law that will temporarily allow doctors in Arizona to perform abortions for their very own patients within the neighboring state.
The Arizona Supreme Court concluded this month that the state can implement a long-dormant law that enables abortions only to avoid wasting the pregnant patient's life. The ruling suggested that doctors may very well be prosecuted under the law, first passed in 1864, which imposes a sentence of two to 5 years in prison for anyone who assists in an abortion.
The law has been blocked for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade in 1973 guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion nationwide.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, convinced a state judge that the 1864 ban may very well be enforced. Still, the law was not actually enforced while the case was litigated. Brnovich's Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, asked the state Supreme Court to not reinstate the law.
Mayes said the earliest the law could take effect is June 8, although the anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending the ban, contends that district attorneys can begin enforcing it as soon because the Supreme Court's decision becomes final. which is predicted to happen this week.
If the proposed repeal receives final approval from the Republican-controlled Legislature and is signed into law by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, a 2022 law banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy would turn out to be the prevailing abortion law. Still, there would likely be a period when all abortion can be banned, for the reason that repeal won't take effect until 90 days after the top of the legislative session, probably in midsummer.
Planned Parenthood officials vowed to proceed performing abortions for the short time they’re still legal and said they’d strengthen networks that help patients travel out of state to places like New Mexico and California to access them to receive abortions.
Last summer, abortion rights advocates launched a campaign to induce Arizona voters to determine a constitutional right to abortion.
The proposed constitutional amendment would guarantee the best to abortion until a fetus can survive outside the womb, often around 24 weeks. It would also allow later abortions to avoid wasting parents' lives or protect their physical or mental health.
Republican lawmakers, in turn, are considering placing a number of competing abortion proposals on the November ballot.
A leaked planning document outlined approaches being considered by House Republicans, resembling codifying existing abortion regulations and proposing a 14-week ban that will be “disguised as a 15-week law” because it will allow abortions as much as the beginning of the fifteenth week. week, and a measure that will ban abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy, before many individuals realize they’re pregnant.
House Republicans haven’t yet publicly released any such proposed voting measures.
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