President Joe Biden slammed the decision by the Republican controlled Arizona Supreme Court that reinstated a 1864 abortion law with no exceptions only to save the life of the mother.
“Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest,” Biden said in a statement.
“This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864—more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote,” he continued. “This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.”
“Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose,” Biden said.
The statement comes after the Republicans on the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 law that made performing an abortion a felony.
Under the more than a century old law, abortion is punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs or helps a woman obtain one. It allows for exceptions “when it is necessary” to save the life of a pregnant person.
The ban goes into effect in 14 days.
“This disastrous decision sets women’s rights in our state back two centuries and means that Arizona women have now lost the right to an abortion,” U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly said in a statement. “It will criminalize doctors for doing their jobs providing the most appropriate care to patients, which will undoubtedly have a devastating effect on the health and freedom of Arizona women and families. And it’s just not who we are as Arizonans.”
The state’s Democratic governor Katie Hobbs also slammed the ruling, saying it is “a dark day in Arizona.”
“It is a dark day in Arizona,” Hobbs wrote in a statement on X/Twitter. “We are just fourteen days away from one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country. But my message to Arizona women is this: I won’t rest, and I won’t stop fighting until we have secured the right to abortion. That is my promise to you.”
“The decision made by the Arizona Supreme Court today is unconscionable and an affront to freedom,” Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) said in a statement. “Make no mistake, by effectively striking down a law passed this century and replacing it with one from 160 years ago, the Court has risked the health and lives of Arizonans.”
