{"id":2216552,"date":"2024-04-09T14:11:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T18:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-supreme-court-upholds-civil-war-era-abortion-ban\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T14:13:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T18:13:53","slug":"arizona-supreme-court-upholds-civil-war-era-abortion-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-supreme-court-upholds-civil-war-era-abortion-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona&#8217;s Supreme Court has upheld an abortion ban dating back to the Civil War era"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Farizona-supreme-court-upholds-civil-war-era-abortion-ban%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2216552&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Arizona Supreme \u200bCourt upheld a Civil War-era law\u2062 restricting abortions in the state. This\u200c decision may impact the 2024 election, prompting debate on adding abortion rights to the state constitution. The law, in\u2063 place since before Arizona&#8217;s statehood, allows exceptions only in \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-appeals-court-decides-texas-can-ban-emergency-abortions-in-spite-of-statute\/\" title=\"Federal court allows Texas to ban emergency abortions, defying statute\">life-threatening \u200csituations<\/a> for the mother and imposes penalties on healthcare \u200dproviders \u2062performing unlawful abortions.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/arizona\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\" Arizona \"> Arizona <\/a>Supreme Court on Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcourts.gov\/Portals\/0\/OpinionFiles\/Supreme\/2024\/CV230005PR.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"upheld\">upheld<\/a> a Civil War-era law that nearly bans all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/abortion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\" Arizona \">abortions<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n<p>The decision could play a major factor in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/2024-elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>2024 election<\/a> as voters will likely weigh whether abortion rights should be added to the state\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n<p>Upholding the 160-year-old law, passed before Arizona\u2019s statehood, means that it will be \u201cprospectively enforced\u201d by April 23. The law bans abortions with exceptions in cases in which the mother faces immediate life-threatening conditions, and it mandates a prison sentence of between two and five years for a healthcare provider that performs the procedure unlawfully.<\/p>\n<h2>Legal background<\/h2>\n<p>Arizona has been ground zero for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mitch-mcconnell-blasts-woke-corporations-warns-of-serious-consequences-for-serving-far-left-mobs\/\" title=\"Mitch McConnell Blasts \u2018Woke\u2019 Corporations, Warns Of \u2018Serious Consequences\u2019 For Serving \u2018Far-Left Mobs\u2019\">state-level debates<\/a> on abortion access following the federal Supreme Court\u2019s overturning of national-level protections for abortion in the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/dobbs-v-jackson-womens-health-organization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization\">Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/a><\/em>  decision in June 2022. <\/p>\n<p>Following the <a href=\"https:\/\/azmirror.com\/2024\/04\/08\/abortion-access-in-az-will-be-decided-tuesday-when-the-supreme-court-rules-on-an-1864-ban\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"unprecedented\">unprecedented<\/a> leak of the drafted <em>Dobbs <\/em>opinion in May 2022, the GOP majority in the state legislature passed a prohibition on abortion after 15 weeks gestation, with exceptions for permanent injury or life-threatening emergencies. Legal controversies quickly emerged following the <em>Dobbs<\/em> decision over the implementation of the 15-week ban versus an 1864 law entirely banning abortion except in instances of \u201cimmediate\u201d life-threatening conditions for the mother.<\/p>\n<p>The 1864 law was permanently enjoined following the <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> decision in 1973, opening the door for nearly 50 years of state-level legislation and regulation governing abortion under federal protections.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-justices-lean-toward-abortion-restrictions\/\" title=\"Supreme Court justices lean toward abortion restrictions\">high court heard oral arguments<\/a> in the case against the 1864 law in December from anti-abortion physician Eric Hazelrigg, who runs crisis pregnancy centers in the Phoenix area.<\/p>\n<p>Hazelrigg\u2019s attorney, Alliance Defending Freedom counselor Jake Warner, argued that the 2022 law does not need to conflict with the 1864 statute. Read in conjunction, the state\u2019s 15-week ban would prohibit every abortion except to save the mother\u2019s life as mandated by the 1864 statute. After 15 weeks, the caveat in the 2022 law would begin, meaning that the mother must face an \u201cimmediate\u201d life-threatening condition to receive an abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Warner argued that not all health conditions constitute an emergency under the 15-week law. For example, Warren argues that an \u201cimmediate\u201d need for an abortion would be an emergent early rupture of the gestational sac, but the need for long-term cancer treatment is life-threatening but not legally \u201cimmediate.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Court acknowledges the \u201cunusual\u201d circumstances<\/h2>\n<p>The court emphasized \u201cthe unusual nature of the statutory interpretation\u201d required in the case, noting that the 1864 statute was never overturned by the legislature following <em>Roe.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>But because the 15-week abortion ban was enacted before the overturning of <em>Roe,<\/em> the court interpreted the law as \u201cnot a legislative attempt to preserve a right to abortion in Arizona\u201d but instead as \u201ca significant legislative restriction on elective abortion.\u201d As such, it could not override the 1864 statute and \u201csurvive <em>Roe\u2019s<\/em> demise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although several states before <em>Dobbs<\/em> had passed laws for abortion bans to go into effect immediately following the Supreme Court\u2019s eventual overturning of <em>Roe, <\/em>known as a trigger provision or a trigger ban, the 2022 Arizona law did not have such a provision.<\/p>\n<h2>Abortion on the 2024 ballot in Arizona <\/h2>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s ruling is devastating,\u201d Mari Urbina, managing director at abortion-rights mobilizing group Indivisible, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s also wildly out of step with where Arizona voters are at. Arizona Republicans in the courts and in public office have been playing political football with abortion rights, and voters are tired of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Abortion-rights advocates are working on a petition to place an <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.arizona.vote\/electioninfo\/assets\/47\/0\/BallotMeasures\/I-05-2024%20Arizona%20for%20Abortion%20Access.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"amendment\">amendment<\/a> on the ballot for the 2024 election that would make access to the procedure a \u201cfundamental right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several reproductive rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, and Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly known as NARAL), must <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2023\/12\/20\/abortion-rights-2024-ballot-measures\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"submit \">submit <\/a>nearly 384,000 citizen signatures by July 3 for the measure to appear on the 2024 ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Urbina said that her organization has recruited over 1,600 volunteers to gather voter signatures before the deadline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the post-<em>Dobbs <\/em>era, the reality is that protecting abortion access as a fundamental right is enormously important and energizing,\u201d Urbina said. \u201cThe abortion fight has meant we\u2019ve needed to deepen organizing infrastructure across the state, and those volunteers are now more fired up than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld a nearly total abortion ban from the Civil War era. This decision may sway the 2024 election, prompting voters to consider enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. The retention of this 160-year-old pre-statehood law signifies a significant legal precedent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2666,"featured_media":2216553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24089713611149-1024x634.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2216552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24089713611149-1024x634.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2666"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2216552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2216552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2216553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2216552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2216552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2216552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}