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full screen The governor of the state of Arizona, Katie Hobbs of the Democrats, signs the decision to abolish the very strict abortion law of 1864 which was reinstated after a decision of the state supreme court in as late as April. Photo: Matt York/AP/TT
The very strict abortion law, from 1864, which was reintroduced in Arizona in April will within a few months be history again.
Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has signed the order to scrap it.
Hobbs signed after the Arizona state Senate on Wednesday voted 16-14 to repeal the law. Democrats and two Republican senators formed the majority.
The law only allows abortion if the woman’s life is in danger.
Governor Hobbs describes the law as “a ban decided by 27 men long before Arizona was even a state, at a time when a civil war was raging over the right to hold slaves and when women didn’t even have the right to vote.”
It was in April that the Supreme Court of the state gave its approval to the controversial 160-year-old law. The decision was made possible after the US Supreme Court in 2022 overturned the decision “Roe v. Wade” from 1973, which secured the right to abortion nationally in the US. Subsequently, several states have chosen to tighten their abortion laws.
The Arizona law has drawn strong criticism from President Joe Biden. His likely opponent in the autumn presidential election, Donald Trump, has also suggested that the Arizona law goes too far – but believes that the states themselves should make decisions on abortion issues.
Despite Hobb’s signing, it will be some time before the strict law, which in practice has not been applied since the decision in April, disappears. State rules state that a repealed law remains in effect for 90 days after the end of the session of the state legislature that repealed it.