Arizona House votes to repeal law protecting life from moment of conception

Peter Pinedo   By Peter Pinedo for CNA

April 24, 2024 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

Pro-life advocates demonstrate prior to an Arizona House of Representatives session at the Arizona State Capitol on April 17, 2024, in Phoenix. / Credit: Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 24, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

The Arizona House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to repeal a law protecting unborn babies from abortion throughout pregnancy.

The narrow 32-28 vote passed an “abortion ban repeal” bill designed to overturn the pro-life law. Republicans have a narrow majority in the Arizona House, but the bill was able to pass as three Republicans joined the Democrats against the pro-life measure.

The repeal bill will now be considered by the Arizona Senate where Republicans also hold a narrow 16-14 majority. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has already signaled she will sign the bill into law if it is passed by the Arizona Senate.

Even if the repeal bill is signed into law it will likely not go into effect until 90 days after the legislative session closes, meaning the pro-life law may be in effect for a short time. The pro-life measure is currently set to go into effect on June 8.

This comes after Democrats launched several unsuccessful attempts to repeal the pro-life law after a controversial Arizona Supreme Court decision ruled that the law — passed in 1864 — could go into effect.

Dormant since being invalidated by Roe v. Wade in 1973, the 1864 law protects all unborn life from conception and imposes prison time for those who “provide, supply, or administer” an abortion. The court ruled that since the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe in the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision, there were no legal reasons to keep the law from being enforced.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden criticized the Arizona pro-life law as backward, blaming former President Donald Trump for the Supreme Court overturning Roe and “literally taking us back 160 years.”

Abortion is currently legal in Arizona until the 15th week of pregnancy. If the 1864 law takes effect, however, all abortion will be illegal, except in cases in which the mother’s life is in danger.

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Massachusetts governor vetoes extreme pro-abortion bill the day after Christmas

December 27, 2020 CNA Daily News 1

Boston, Mass., Dec 27, 2020 / 11:00 am (CNA).- Charlie Baker, the pro-choice Republican governor of Massachusetts, vetoed a bill that would legalize abortions up to birth and lower to 16 the age for girls to get abortions without a parent’s knowledge or consent.

The state House and Senate have sent the bill to Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday, December 22nd, rejecting changes he made earlier this month to limit the expansion of late-term abortions and to require parental consent before underage girls get abortions.

Explaining his decision to veto the bill, Baker insisted that although he supports abortion “I cannot support the sections of this proposal that expand the availability of late-term abortions and permit minors age 16 and 17 to get an abortion without the consent of a parent or guardian.”

Earlier in the year, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference stated that the bill, “if enacted, would expand access to abortion in Massachusetts.”

“Most troubling is the fact that under these provisions, women will have greater access to late-term abortions throughout the term of their pregnancy with no specific statutory requirement that a physician utilize lifesaving medical equipment if a child is born alive.”

The Massachusetts Catholic Conference had yet to react to the governor’s veto, while the legislature has already announced an effort to override the veto early in 2021, which will require a two-thirds majority in both the state House and the Senate.

The bill, called the ROE act by supporters, passed in the state House by 107-50, while the vote in the state Senate was an uncounted voice vote.


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