Arizona Supreme Court reinstates 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state can enforce a long-dormant law criminalizing all abortions unless the mother’s life is threatened.

The case examined whether the state was still governed by laws that existed before Arizona became a state. The 1864 law made no exceptions for rape or incest, but allowed abortion if the mother’s life was threatened.

The state high court’s ruling reviewed a 2022 ruling by a state appeals court that said doctors cannot be charged for performing surgeries in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing the constitutional right to abortion, an earlier court decision blocked enforcement of the 1864 law.after U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade in June 2022Then-state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge in Tucson to remove barriers to enforcement of the 1864 law.

Brnovich’s Democratic successor, Attorney General Kris Mayes, urged the state’s high court to side with the appeals court and suspend the 1864 law. “Today’s decision to reimpose a law when Arizona was not a state, the Civil War was raging and women couldn’t even vote will go down in history as a stain on our state,” Meyers said Tuesday.

The judges said the state could begin enforcing the law within 14 days.