PHOENIX – Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego defended a potential repeal this week. Arizona’s 1864 abortion law It is not a viable long-term solution to securing abortion rights for Arizona women.
“The damage has been done,” Gallego told NBC News about the state Supreme Court’s possible overturning of the 1864 ban. The sentence handed down last week can be executedeffectively banning the procedure statewide.
“Any initiative they take now won’t even take effect for a long time,” he said.
Gallego, who is running for Senate this year, also pointed out that an 1864 repeal of the blanket ban, which made exceptions for medical emergencies and not rape or consanguinity, could be overturned by future state legislatures.
“To make matters worse, it could then be overturned by another state House or state Senate,” Gallego said.
“The only defense we really, really have is to codify this and put it on the ballot and enumerate Roe and protect abortion rights,” he said.
Gallego argued that repeal through the state is the first step in correcting what he sees as an injustice. “They just have to put the bill down, repeal that and codify Roe, which you can do at the state level right now,” he said of what Republicans in the Legislature should do next after the 1864 ban.
Gallego made the comments on Friday, hours later rally with Vice President Kamala Harris regarding the provision of abortion rights.
According to the Arizona constitution, the new law will not go into effect until then 90 days after the adjournment of the legislature.
If the law were deemed emergency legislation, it could go into effect immediately with Gov. Kathy Hobbs’ signature, but with both chambers of the Arizona Legislature controlled by Republicans, that’s unlikely to be a more pragmatic path forward for abortion advocates. rights.
Arizona for Abortion, a coalition of reproductive rights organizations including the Arizona ACLU and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, is seeking a statewide referendum in November to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
The constitutional amendment What the coalition is proposing is that it would create a “fundamental right” to receive abortion-related care until fetal viability or about the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions if a health care professional “determines it is necessary to preserve life or physical health. or the mental health of a pregnant person.”
The election campaign announced this collected more than half a million signatures at the beginning of the month, which is more than 120,000 more than needed to get on the November ballot. But the signatures will be verified by abortion rights opponents, with lead organizers for Abortion Access Arizona aiming to double the 383,923 valid signatures needed.
Gallego said his campaign is about gathering signatures.
“I have volunteers who go door-to-door collecting signatures,” said the congressman.
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, called for a repeal of the state’s abortion ban in remarks to Phoenix volunteers for the Biden-Harris campaign on Saturday — even as Gallego signaled support for the repeal through the Legislature “isn’t enough” and for federal legislation.
“We need to codify the right of women here in Arizona to make that decision for themselves, and ultimately do it federally,” Kelly said.
Despite Democrats pushing for alternatives such as a ballot initiative or federal legislation, Republicans in the Arizona Legislature may still be forced to act at the state level under pressure to repeal the ban.
“The Governor and the Arizona Legislature must use HEART, COMMON SENSE and ACT IMMEDIATELY to fix what has happened.” he wrote Former President Donald Trump on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday.
“Arizona Legislature, please act as soon as possible!” the former president added.
Gallego’s Senate opponent, Trump-backed Republican Kari Lake, told Republican lawmakers and urges the repeal of the ban.
Republican state Rep. Matt Gress, one of the few Republican lawmakers to publicly oppose the 1864 ban, told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that he believes it could be repealed in the coming days.
“I am very confident that when we meet next Wednesday, we will vote on the measure and it will prevail in the House. And it will be sent to the Senate and the Senate will take action and it will prevail in the Senate and that bill will likely be on Governor Hobbs’ desk by the end of the day,” Gress said. “Meet the press NOW” Thursday.
But Gress’ timeline may be at odds with Republican Speaker Ben Thoma’s he said “Rather than rushing into legislation on an issue of this magnitude, we as an elected body will take the time necessary to listen to our constituents and carefully consider appropriate action,” he said in a statement Wednesday.
Gress introduced a motion to repeal the law on Tuesday, then voted, before voting to end debate on that repeal moments later. Admitted to the Arizona Republic.
On Wednesday, Arizona Republican state legislators blocked Push to overturn 160-year abortion ban. The Arizona House is scheduled to reconvene on Wednesday.