The upper house of Congress in Arizona voted on Wednesday to repeal a law that almost completely banned abortion, which was written in 1864, following a decision in early April by the Supreme Court of this state in the American West that called it enforceable.

The repeal of the text, which prohibited almost any termination of pregnancy from the moment of conception, with the sole exception of cases where the future mother’s life was in danger, was narrowly decided, with 16 votes in favor against 14 against. The measure remains to be ratified by Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.

The elected official emphasized in her statement that she is “happy” about the outcome of the vote in the state Senate and assured that she will “hurry to ratify the repeal” of the law.

The issue of abortion has become a central campaign issue in the country ahead of the November 5 showdown between Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.

Arizona is among the states that may decide the outcome of the matchup.

In the 1864 law, no exceptions were provided either for cases where the pregnancy was 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.

“This complete ban on abortion would send doctors to prison, threaten the lives of women across our state and negate the right of millions” of Arizona women to make decisions about their bodies and their futures, Gov. Hobbs said yesterday.

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, but this could not be ruled out after the election, since she is also an elected official.

The decision “to re-impose a law going back to when Arizona wasn’t even a state, when 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 citizens’ initiative to gather signatures to request a referendum to enshrine the right to abortion in the Arizona Constitution has announced that it has secured the required number. The public consultation is expected to run concurrently with the Nov. 5 election, as is 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 brags that he succeeded, with his appointments to the federal Supreme Court, in the repeal of the constitutional protection of abortion in June 2022, but he would prefer not to suffer the electoral consequences that would probably entail the adoption of an overly conservative position on the issue.