Arizona House REPEALS 1864 abortion ban: Three Republicans join Democrats to reverse Civil War-era bill less than three weeks after it was revived by the state Supreme Court

The Arizona House voted to repeal the 1864 law that banned abortion in nearly all cases, just weeks after the state Supreme Court issued a controversial decision that sparked nationwide outrage.

The House voted to repeal the 160-year-old law, with three Republicans crossing party lines to vote with Democrats. It was the third attempt to repeal the law.

The legislation now heads to the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Arizona’s Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs has urged the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass legislation repealing the Civil War-era law since the state Supreme Court ruled the law could be enforced. enforced and sent shockwaves across the country.

Anti-abortion rights protesters outside the Arizona State Capitol before the House voted to repeal the 1864 law that banned abortion

Democrats in the state Legislature have pushed for the repeal of the law that was on the books for three weeks before Arizona even became a state.

Two previous attempts to repeal the 1864 law were blocked by Republicans in recent weeks.

On Wednesday, three Republicans in the House of Representatives joined Democrats in voting on HB2677. The final vote was 32 to 28.

One House of Representatives Democrat returned to the Capitol to cast a vote to repeal the law, despite having undergone knee replacement surgery the day before.

Spectators in the stands say the Pledge of Allegiance before Democrats in the House of Representatives move to repeal the 1864 law that bans almost all abortion.

On April 9, the state’s highest court ruled that the law, which bans abortion in all cases, with limited exceptions to save the mother’s life, could be enforced. The law contains no exceptions for rape or incest.

It paved the way for Arizona to have one of the strictest abortion bans in the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, ending the federal right to abortion and returning the issue to the states.

After the ruling was handed down, Democrats and some Republican leaders rejected the decision, leaving state lawmakers in disarray.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the state where she placed the blame for the law squarely on former President Trump and accused Republicans of trying to return the state to the 19th century.

While Trump praised the overturning of Roe v Wade by his nominees to the Supreme Court, he also said the state court decision went too far.

He suggested state lawmakers move quickly to repeal it, but the effort has taken weeks, with Republican lawmakers blocking the effort several times before Wednesday’s House vote.

Ben Toma, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, pauses to watch the votes as the House moves to repeal Arizona’s near-total abortion ban. He voted against the proposal

In response to Wednesday’s vote, Arizona’s Republican House Speaker issued a statement saying he disagrees with his Democratic colleagues on this issue.

‘I am deeply disappointed. As I have said before, Democrats apparently believe that abortions should occur without borders and without regulations,” said Chairman Ben Toma.

After the vote, House Republicans turned their backs on GOP Rep. Matt Gress, who voted to withdraw the bill from his committee assignments.

In a statement after his vote, Gress said the House acted on a “bipartisan basis to repeal our state’s territorial abortion law, which is unworkable and inconsistent with the values ​​of Arizonans.”