PHOENIX – For the second time in two weeks, Arizona’s Republican lawmakers have rejected an attempt to overturn an 1864 ban on abortion entirely. provided with battlefield state Supreme Court.
The move to re-block the Democratic-led effort comes amid mounting pressure from state Republicans, including from the former president, to repeal the ban. Donald Trump and Arizona GOP Senate candidate Lake Kari.
Still, with Arizona Republicans holding narrow two-seat majorities in both legislative chambers, Democratic lawmakers face an uphill battle to repeal the ban. Only one Republican joined state House Democrats on Wednesday to repeal the abortion ban.
Democrats introduced the long-awaited state House legislative session on Wednesday draft law Act petitioned Republican House leaders to repeal the Civil War-era ban and demand an immediate vote.
Under Arizona House rules, a majority of the chamber must vote to suspend the rules for an immediate vote, and that majority must include the Speaker of the House. House Speaker Ben Thoma, a Republican, has repeatedly expressed his opposition to repealing the ban.
The vote failed, prompting Democrats to move again to force a vote, which failed.
“The last thing we need to do today is to rush a bill through the legislative process to repeal a law that has been passed and approved by the Legislature several times,” Toma said after the first vote to kill the ban’s progress.
“And I would ask everyone in this chamber that some of us believe that abortion is actually the murder of children,” he added.
The House adjourned after the second vote. It was unclear whether MPs would hold a further vote or discuss the ban when they return.
The state Senate is scheduled to vote in its session Wednesday afternoon. It remains possible that lawmakers in that chamber, where Republicans also hold a two-seat majority, could try to push a bill to repeal the ban.
Wednesday’s proceedings marked the latest chapter in the battle over abortion rights in a key battleground after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled last week to allow Arizona’s Civil War-era law to stand.
This law made it a crime to commit an abortion or assist a woman in obtaining an abortion, punishable by two to five years in prison. The law — codified in 1901 and again in 1913, after Arizona gained statehood — prohibits abortion from the moment of conception, but includes an exception to save the woman’s life.
After the ruling, Republicans in Arizona and across the country called on state lawmakers to repeal the ban, as the party challenged the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade continues to deal with the reproductive rights backlog nearly two years after she dropped her case.
The bombshell decision also added the swing state to a growing list of places where abortion care is effectively banned and sparked an explosion of political activity. Democrats furiously mounted efforts to repeal the ban, while Republicans fought feverishly to avoid political fallout, debating a number of possible contingencies.
Those options include holding alternative ballot measures to compete with a proposed constitutional amendment to expand abortion rights in the state, according to a leaked strategy document circulating among Arizona Republicans. Retrieved Monday by NBC News.
The document does not mention the cancellation of the ban. Arizona House Republicans blocked an attempt by Democrats to repeal the ban last Wednesday.