Arizona votes to repeal abortion ban before election

Donald Trump and Kari Lake, his ally running for the US Senate, said the restrictive law would hurt their chances with voters.

Members of Arizona for Abortion Access, the ballot initiative to enshrine abortion rights in the Arizona state constitution, in Phoenix. Picture: AFP

Politicians in Arizona have voted to repeal an abortion ban dating back to the civil war after warnings from Donald Trump and Republican leaders that it would be politically toxic in an election year.

The lower house of the state’s general assembly voted to overturn the law, which would criminalise abortion at all stages of pregnancy, after the state Supreme Court cleared the way for its enforcement earlier this month. The ban was set to come into force in June.

Three Republicans sided with every Democrat in the house to repeal the ban, which would have made no exceptions for rape or ­incest. The law was first passed in 1864, decades before Arizona was formally admitted to the US.

President Joe Biden condemned the state Supreme Court’s ruling and blamed Mr Trump for leaving abortion laws in disarray.

Mr Trump appointed three conservative justices to the US ­Supreme Court, who in 2022 voted to overturn Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion nationwide. The 2022 judgment left individual states to determine their abortion laws.

Mr Biden has put abortion at the forefront of his re-election campaign, pointing to draconian bans imposed in several states as he attempts to capitalise on a groundswell of public anger since the fall of Roe v Wade.

In a speech addressing abortion rights on Tuesday, Mr Biden said Trump created a “healthcare crisis for women all over this country”.

In the 2020 election, Mr Biden defeated Mr Trump in Arizona by just over 10,000 votes. With opinion polls pointing to another close race in November, Republican leaders urged state legislators to intervene and repeal the ban. Mr Trump, who has sidestepped questions about his position on abortion, said the Arizona ban went “too far”.

Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for the US Senate and a Trump loyalist who had previously supported the 1864 law, also urged the state to rescind the ban, fearing it would wreck her election chances.

Democrats believe abortion is an issue that will galvanise voters in November. Mr Biden’s campaign has launched an advertising blitz targeting the swing states, blaming Mr Trump for the restrictions imposed on women’s healthcare since 2022.

The adverts feature accounts from women who fled their home states to seek a termination or were forced to give birth after a miscarriage, endangering their own lives, accompanied by the slogan: “Donald Trump did this.”

The decision to repeal the Arizona abortion ban will pass to the state senate for a vote in May.

If the law is overturned, the state will return to a ban only on abortions after 15 weeks’ pregnancy. Abortion rights groups are pushing to add a constitutional right to termination up to 24 weeks to Arizona’s state constitution.

The Times