Arizona’s House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to repeal an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions that was upheld two weeks ago by the western state’s Supreme Court in a key election. level.

Several moderate Republicans have decided to defy the party line and join with Democrats to push for a repeal of the law, which prohibits abortion at all from the moment of conception, with the sole exception of cases where the life of the expectant mother is at risk. There are no exceptions even for cases where the pregnancy is due to rape or incest.

The fact that this law was deemed applicable triggered a new war in the US, condemned in high tones by President Joe Biden, while it was also criticized, more modestly, by his Republican counterpart Donald Trump.

Dormant for decades, the law “is now enforceable,” the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9. The ruling followed a decision by the US federal Supreme Court, which in June 2022 overturned the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion and left discretion to states to legislate on the issue.

Since then, about twenty states have outlawed or severely restricted abortion.

The state attorney general (acting minister of justice), Democrat Chris Maze, reacted strongly, announcing that she would not approve any prosecution against women or doctors, something that cannot be ruled out to change in the near future, since she is an elected official.

The decision “to re-impose a law going back to when Arizona wasn’t even a state, the Civil War was raging and women didn’t even have the right to vote, will go down in history as a black mark on our State,” Ms. Maze said on April 9. .

A citizen’s initiative is underway to gather signatures to request a referendum to enshrine the right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution. If successful, the public consultation will be held at the same time as the November 5 election, just like in Florida (southeast) — another swing state.

Democratic incumbent Biden has made championing women’s rights a major focus of his campaign to secure a second term in November, when he will face Republican predecessor Donald Trump again.

The latter boasts that he succeeded, with the appointments he made to the federal Supreme Court, in overturning the constitutionality of abortion in June 2022, but he would prefer not to suffer the electoral consequences of taking an overly conservative position on the issue. .

A majority of Americans still favor abortion rights, polls show, complicating matters for him and the Republican Party.