Arizona Democratic Attorney General Christine Mays announced Tuesday that she will not enforce a state Supreme Court ruling that upheld an 1864 law banning most abortions.
On Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court control it’s the law criminalize Abortion can be forced unless necessary to save the mother’s life, according to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization In 2022, it ruled that there is no constitutional right to abortion. Mays, one of the parties to the case, later released a statement to X, condemning the decision but arguing that prosecutors do not enforce the law against doctors and women seeking abortions. (Related: Arizona Supreme Court rules near-total abortion ban could go into effect)
“[L]Let me be clear: As long as I am Attorney General, no woman or doctor will be prosecuted under this draconian law in this state,” Mays wrote. “Today’s decision to reimpose laws from a time when Arizona wasn’t a state, the Civil War was raging, and women couldn’t even vote will go down in history as a stain on the state.”
The decision handed down today by the Arizona Supreme Court is unconscionable and an affront to liberty. pic.twitter.com/swEqJREVVS
— Arizona Attorney General Chris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) April 9, 2024
“Without a constitutional right to abortion…there is no federal or state law prohibiting abortion. [the 1864 law]This is the operation. Accordingly, [it] is now enforceable,” wrote Judge John R. Lopez, an appointee of former Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey who makes up the court’s four-member majority. The court’s entire bench was appointed by the Republican governor, but two of its members, Chief Justice Robert Brutinelle and Deputy Chief Justice Ann Timmer, dissented from the decision.
Republican leaders of the Arizona House of Representatives empowered The state constitution, which calls for the officials to be impeached, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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